The Chaos Never Known
by Trinity-Plus
Summary: Tails finds Shadow in his backyard, and takes him home. When he finally awakes, Shadow tells Tails of a strange legend that has it's roots in the Chaos Emeralds. Taking the pup with him, Shadow and Tails travels the world in search for the truth.
1. Chapter 1

Trinity: And here, my third story on You people should praise me...

Shadow: (stretches) Alright! I'm back!

Draco: You look like you just woke up.

Shadow: (O.o) ...

Trinity: Draco! Go back to your own story!

Draco: Fine! (walks away)

Shadow: ...

Trinity: No. Don't even think about it!

Shadow: Drats...

**I don't own Sega and it's wonderful characters.** Though I did make a few adjustments to some of them...

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**Chapter 1- The Black Hedgehog Returns**

_TAILS' JOURNAL_

_This is a journal that I have start, so that people, including myself, will never forget the days of a, hopefully, famous genius._

_For three years, a terrible war consumed the world. It was called The War That Destroyed the World. There has been death and destruction all over the globe. And now, on this very day, it has been exactly one year since all that ended. And still, this world has been left a hellish place to live. In most places, nothing will grow or the things that do are toxic. It has been very hard to get by._

_People have been forced to move from their homes as they were destroyed and move to another. My own workshop has been destroyed twice. This time, I'm living a little way from Farsight Town. I built my workshop out in the woods next to the river, so I have a little protection if any bandits decide to cause trouble. If worse comes to worse, I can just escape down the river._

Tails stretched and stifled a yawn as he finished the first entry of his journal. He closed the little book and left it on the center of his desk as he rose to his feet. The clock above his desk read 11:49 and Tails was ready for bed. He climbed the stairs to the little flat above his workshop, took off clothes, tossed them into the corner of the room and climbed underneath the covers.

The window that Tails' bed was underneath had no curtains, so the moon light illuminated his room. He sighed and rolled onto his back, staring up through his window. He could easily see the full moon hanging high in the sky.

_Something else occurred on this day._ Tails thought to himself. _Shadow up and disappeared. The same day that the first attack occurred miles and miles away. Nobody knows were he went, or when he was coming back._

With one last glance at the moon, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

_I wonder if he's okay._

-0-0-

The next morning, Tails dragged himself out of bed early. He had to go into town today and get the groceries for the week. He might only be 12 years old, but Tails has been living independently for 5 years. He knew how to cook and clean, keep his house and workshop presentable. He had to get use to living on his own at an early age.

Tails put on a pair of shorts, struggling with his pair of tails for a while, and grabbed his best sleeveless jacket. He pulled on his old shoes and gloves, which were worn and torn. _I need to get some new gloves this time_, he thought, inspecting his finger tips through the torn fabric. He grabbed the little purse that he saved most of his rings in and carefully counted out enough for shopping and left his workshop just as the sun peaked over the tree tops.

The town of Farsight was placed strategically at the top of a tall hill. From the watch towers, one could see for miles all around. The thick forest surrounding the town and the shadow of the jagged mountains hid the town from those who didn't know where to find to it. The tall gates surrounding the town kept the citizens within safe from the harm of ill meaning strangers.

Everything about the town of Farsight pointed toward one thing. It was a settlement founded by the survivors of the war. People who were driven from their original home lands and sought for a safe place to beginning again found this valley. Farsight, though well-known after the war, was isolated from the world during. It was the perfect safe haven.

Tails, well known by the watch, strolled into town and went down to the marketplace. He stopped to get himself some breakfast in the bakery then went on to start buying his necessities. He stopped at one stall and looked at some gloves, a black leather pair catching his eye. He passed on actually getting them, and instead spent the rest of his money on some new mechanical parts for his inventions.

The morning had developed into a humid afternoon when he was done shopping. Using his tails, he flew home as quickly as he could. Tails disliked the heat of the day and preferred to be home when the warmth hit. He landed in front of the garage doors and had to put down the bags as he fumbled for his keys. He got into the workshop, put up the groceries (his kitchen is next to the workshop), and laid out the parts on his work table.

Tails turned around and had the misfortune to knock over a bucket of water. Cursing silently he grabbed towels and mopped up the mess. The large bucket he knocked over contained water from a lake out near the base of the mountain. He forgot why he had it filled particularly with this water, but he grabbed the bucket and went out to fill it again anyways.

Huffing and puffing, Tails climbed over the huge roots of the forest trees and dodged their low hanging branches. He couldn't fly through the forest to get to his destination and had to go on foot. He hopped over a particularly large root and stumbled over something. This "something" groaned in pain from being stepped on. Tails scrambled to his feet and gasped at what he saw.

Shadow the Hedgehog was lying unconscious under the roots of one very old tree.

-0-0-

Tails sat panting in his reading chair. He brought Shadow back to workshop as quickly as he could. It was no easy task carrying him up the stairs either. Shadow currently rested in Tails' bed, sleeping soundly. Tails could find no physical injuries on him, but he hadn't even stirred when Tails lifted him up on his back. As far as he knew, Shadow was just fine, despite the fact he was still unconscious.

Tails watched Shadow sleep for a little while longer before remembering why he was out. _And I left the bucket out there, too_. He gave one last glance at Shadow and went down the stairs. _I hope he doesn't wake up while I'm out. There's no telling what he'll do when he finds himself in a strange place._

Tails left and retraced his steps back to the place where he tripped and dropped the bucket. He found it stuck in a branch, and continued on his way to the lake. Though his return trip was weighed down with a bucket full of water, he walked as fast as he could. He managed to get home with only a quarter of the water spilt down his front. Grumbling, he went up to his flat and headed towards the shower.

"Is that kind of language appropriate for a child?"

Tails spun around at the sound of the voice. "Sh-Shadow! Are you alright? What happened? How did you get here? Where did you come from?"

"Not now Tails!" Shadow groaned in a weak voice. "I'm having enough problems as it is. Don't bombard me with pointless questions."

"S-Sorry." Moments of silence. "Um, I'm going to go take a shower right now."

More silence. Tails, feeling awkward, ducks into the bathroom. _What's up with him? I guess he was always like that though…_Tails bathed quickly, feeling like he shouldn't keep Shadow waiting. But when he got out of the bathroom, Shadow was asleep again. With a sigh, Tails went down stairs and looked around for something to do.

_I hope he wakes up soon. We have a lot of things to discuss._

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Tails: He's asleep! Why is he asleep again!

Shadow: Why am I sleeping again?

Trinity: You'll understand it later. In the next chapter. So just wait a little.

Tails: (groans) But where am I gonna sleep?

Trinity: THE COUCH!

Tails: All right, all right...

Shadow: Heh heh. Read and Review folks!


	2. Chapter 2

Trinity: Nyah...that was fun. 

Shadow: ...Mmph! (oo')

Tails: What happened to Shadow's mouth? It's gone!

Trinity: He came over to the other story. _And_ tried to talk back to me.

Tails: (sweatdrop) Never talk back to an authoress...

Shadow: (rolls eyes)

Tails: Man, it's gonna be to far too quiet...I'm outta here!

**I don't own Sega or it's characters!** Let's all mourn for it's loss...

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**Chapter 2- Awakening and Explanations**

Tails stormed into his flat, covered in ash, grinding his teeth. He stormed silently into his bathroom and stormed right back out, completely clean, and back down into his workshop.

It's been almost two weeks since Tails carried Shadow home. The black hedgehog hasn't moved an inch since he woke up the first time. Tails, his bed occupied, has been sleeping on the comfy, but not-so-good-on-the-back, couch. He works constantly on his inventions and only occasionally checks up on his sleeping tenant, not expecting any difference. In those two weeks, Tails has caused almost every new invention he touched to work improperly, stop working altogether, or even explode.

_He's bad luck!_ He though furiously as a twisted pile of metal on his work table spewed ash and smoke. _Ever since that hedgehog got here, everything's gone to hell! How in the world is he doing this?! There has got to be a reason behind all this!_

Tails found a wrench lying on the ground and scooped it up. He glared angrily at the smoldering metal, muttered "piece of junk" and whacked furiously at it until it was nothing more that a pile of broken scrap metal (and appropriately disposed of it into the box labeled "scrap metal"). Feeling just a bit better, he decided to take a break and retired to his kitchen for lunch.

_I can't believe I lost my temper like that. That wasn't like me at all,_ he thought to himself while munching on a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He finished off his sandwich with a glass of milk and stood in the door way between his kitchen and workshop. His scrap metal box was overflowing, his work table was covered in burn marks from minor explosions and almost all of his equipment was shot. _I need to wake up that hedgehog._

Upstairs, Shadow was still sleeping quietly. Tails circled around his bed, eyeing him closely. He didn't look like he had been suffering from any unseen injuries or unexplained pain. He didn't look like he was sick or on the verge of death. He just looked like he was taking a light nap. And despite that, he hadn't budge no matter what Tails did during those two weeks.

"I'll find out what's wrong with you if it kills me!" Tails exclaimed, pounding his fist into his hand. "This, I suppose, is quiet possible. In my experience, nothing's safe around you."

Tails lifted Shadow off his bed and onto his shoulders. He carried the larger hedgehog down the stairs and dumped him onto the table. He rolled his limp body onto his back and scurried around to set everything up around him. When he was done, there where five types of scanners hanging over Shadow, with three walls of machinery and computers on all sides except next to his head.

"There!" Tails said, a huge, almost deranged, smile on his face, "There's no way that I could have messed that up! And even if something goes wrong over there, my computer way over there on the other side of the room is going to be receiving and backing up all the data that's to be collected!

"Okay! Let's begin!"

The scans whirred into life and different types of rays swept of every corner of Shadow's body. Immediately, the computers began collecting and processing the data from the scans and sending the information to the other computer at the other side of the room, where it was printed out. Tails rubbed his hands together gleefully and Shadow kept on sleeping.

Then things took a turn for the worse.

After only two minutes of running, the scans only half way completed, smoke flurried from the midst of the machinery. At first Tails didn't notice, until a spark jumped and something fizzled. Then there was more sparks and furls of smoke rising to the ceiling. The smile was still on his stunned face as he watches in horror as one after another piece of equipment burst into flames.

"Eh? What happened?" Tails stood staring, dazed, at the roaring flames.

In the middle of the three-wall inferno, Shadow hadn't moved an inch. The tongues of flame were getting awfully close to him. The heat wave warped Tails' vision and he caught sight of the black hedgehog.

"Shadow? Shadow!"

Tails jumped into action. He ran forward, only to jump back again when one of the sensitive pieces of equipment exploded. Tails had to circle around to the side of Shadow that wasn't surrounded by burning machinery. Tails whimpered, when another computer exploded, adding to the growing heat. He took off his gloves and covered his nose and mouth with them as the workshop filled with smoke.

He paced closer to the fire, keeping an eye on the time bombs that was his burning equipment. He spotted one ready to blow and braced himself. He yipped when the flames skimmed over his head and leaped into the inferno. He hooked his arms under Shadow's shoulders and dragged him off the table, keeping him low. He didn't stop dragging him until he was far from the fire.

"Heat. I hate the heat," Tails said, panting. He sat with his legs out stretched, clinging to Shadow. "And he's still asleep. What the-! He's…cold?"

Shadow's fur was cool to the touch, although he was in the middle of the fire. Tails panicked for a second, but noticed his steady breathing. Looking closer, he noticed that not a single guard hair was singed. It was as if the fire hadn't affected him at all. Tails sighed and pressed his cheek against the cool fur.

"At least you're okay, Shadow."

Tails coughed. The warehouse was filling up with smoke. Tails laid Shadow down and opened the large double garage doors so the smoke would flow out. He was glad he ran the tests in the center of the workshop, away from everything else so nothing else could burn. He went to grab the fire extinguisher from the kitchen and quickly put out the fire.

Tails moved Shadow from the floor to the couch. He sat on the arm of the couch, staring blankly at the smoldering mess in the center of the work shop. Most of the smoke had already cleared out, but the smell lingered in the fabric of the couch and chairs.

He glanced at the pile of paper from the printer with a thin layer of dust from the extinguisher on top of it. He got up and took a look at the data printed on it. He scanned over page after page, his eyes steadily growing larger. He dropped the paper and looked at the multiple diagrams of Shadow on his computer, growing excited. He gapped at all the information and data that popped up on his screen.

"No way!"

-0-0-

Shadow groaned. He felt like there was a throbbing needle in his brain and his whole body felt as heavy as lead. His muscles were stiff too, as if he had been lying still for a long time. He started to become alarmed, when he smelt the lingering scent of smoke.

Shadow heard the light foot fall of a young pup treading toward him. Shadow, knowing who it was, tried to say something along the lines of "hello." All he got out was a few gurgles. He managed to open an eye and look at the young pup giggling at his attempts of speech.

"Good morning to you too, Shadow," Tails said happily. He had a tired, almost fatigued look about him, but he did seem very happy to see Shadow awake.

"How long…was I out?" Shadow managed to say.

"Oh, a good three weeks. I finally figured out why last week, as well as burn down some of my most expensive equipment. Did you know what was wrong with you?" Tails said, not waiting for a response. "You were overflowing with Chaos energy! If you were conscious, you would have destroyed your self! Those four suppressant rings were barley keeping you in check. I had to make you another one, just so you could wake up!"

"Why does my ear hurt?" Shadow interrupted.

"Oh, that's where the temporary suppressant is. It's just a simple little ring. It will due, for now, but I have to make you a permanent one before that one breaks."

"You pierced my ear?!"

"Hey, I think it looks good on you!"

Shadow groaned, his hand automatically going to his ear lobe to fiddle with the intruding piece of metal. It felt fragile under his fingers, due to the amount of energy his body pressed against it. He was grateful, very grateful, to the pup for helping him.

"How did you manage to get so much power?" Tails added after a thoughtful silence.

"I trained. How else? I did manage to…well, let's just say I found a good place to train."

"That place…it must have been a natural suppressant of Chaos energy! I mean, if you were anywhere else, you would have already died from the overload of Chaos energy. I mean, I don't even know how you managed to get yourself down to this mountain side, unless this 'training ground' is somewhere nearby."

"Kid."

"Yes?"

"You talk too much."

"Er, sorry. I've just gotten use to being…alone."

Shadow studied the pup. Tails was staring pass him with unfocused eyes. His ears were drooping slightly. He looked very, very tired, both physically and emotionally. Shadow didn't do very well with others, and he didn't seem the caring type, but he was good at find the source of many problems.

"Tails, where's Sonic?"

"I…I don't know," Tails said, his voice shaking. "Nobody knows. The day you left, a war had started somewhere. In just two weeks, it engulfed the entire planet. Sonic…Sonic stayed with us for a while, made sure me, and Cream, and even Amy, were going to be okay. Then he left. He became the leader of some sort of Suicide Squad that was out on the front lines. He and his men were doing okay for first year, but…but then…" Shadow sat up, listening with rapt attention. By now, Tails' little body shook with his voice. He looked on the verge of breaking down, but he forced himself to continue.

"One morning, it's said, it was Sonic's team's turn to scout ahead. They came across a small battalion of robots laying in wait to ambush the main army in the valley. They sent the warning with one of the men back to the main army and waited. Well, we know Sonic." Tails let out a little laugh, quiet unlike his own. "He just hates waiting. So he surprised attacked the battalion.

"Nobody knows how long that battle even lasted. When the main army reached the valley, expecting an ambush, they only found blood. The entire field was covered in the parts of every single person in Sonic's Suicide Squad. Everyone except Sonic. They scrutinized the valley, and couldn't even find a single strand of his blue fur or drop of his blood.

"So nobody knows what happened to him. He hasn't shown up in two years, so most people think his dead. He could have been chasing someone from the battle grounds and got lead into a trap. But this army didn't take any prisoners of war. What would they want with him? They defiantly couldn't convince him to fight with them. My guess is…he probably…died…in some dank, dark cell, forgotten as the only prisoner."

"That wouldn't be like Sonic."

Tails looked up at Shadow with teary eyes. He was staring at the pup with intensity, as if he didn't believe that Tails could even think such a thing. Tails was a bit taken aback by the look in the dark hedgehog's eyes.

"You know as well as I do, that that fake hedgehog wouldn't die in a place like that," Shadow said with the same intensity of his eyes in his voice. "The longer they would keep him in a cell, the more likely he would break out. If he did die, he died running on a nice open field, with lots of sunshine and happy shit like that."

Tails chuckled a bit, whipping away a stray tear.

"But we both know that Sonic isn't dead," Shadow said, more to himself. "He's far too stubborn for that to happen…"

_GRRRRROOOOOWL_

"…Erm, can I have something to eat?"

Tails almost fell over laughing at Shadow. Shadow huffed and ignored the two tailed pup clutching his sides.

* * *

Shadow: W00T!

Tails: She gave you your mouth back, huh? Good for you.

Shadow: (sarcastic) It's nice to know you care so much.

Tails: (shrugs) You just nearly burned down my third workshop. I should be charging you for the damage.

Shadow: And with what money do you expect to be payed with? I know I don't have any!

Tails: (sulk) Which is why I can't charge you...

Shadow:(BP)Heh heh heh...

Trinity: Yeah, yeah. Hurray. Review me purty please!


	3. Chapter 3

Shadow: Hey, you managed to update on time.

Trinity: Yeah, I had my document prepared before hand for this.

Tails: Oh good, you thought ahead this time.

Trinity: You say that as if I didn't try to update my onther story on time...

Tails: You didn't.

Trinity: Lies!

Shadow: You didn't? You're a bad author...ess.

Trinity: Nun-uh! I'm a good girl! Honest!

Shadow: No one believes you.

**I own none of the Sega characters! **Honest!

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**Chapter 3– Bandits**

For the next three days, Tails worked extra hard on making a permanent ring for Shadow. When he wasn't sleeping, Shadow was meditating. After a disastrous attempt at helping, Shadow tried not to disturb Tails' work, or make his things go bonkers. So he spent his waking hours outside, next to a mysterious lake. It was here that Tails found Shadow meditating on the forth day.

"It's finished!" He announced, landing next to Shadow. Shadow opened one eye and glanced at the kit. "And boy, let me tell you how hard it was! I sure am glad that I studied the properties of your bracelets back then, because if I hadn't, I might not have _ever_ gotten you to wake up in the first place!"

"Kid?"

"I mean, yeah, I could have just done all the studies when I found you, but those reactions would have happened and then I wouldn't _know_ what to do! And then there's the fact that this material is hard to come by. It's not like the rings themselves suppress your powers."

"Kid!"

"You're energy just somehow fuses with the material that the rings are made up of and then, you yourself gain control over it. So the rings aren't suppressing the energy, it's-"

"MILES PROWER!"

"Eep!"

"I know all of this already," Shadow said with a sigh. "Just, give me the ring."

"Well, I was kinda hoping to wait until you were asleep to transfer the ring. I mean, I would have to take off the temporary one, and it would be useless if you destroyed yourself."

"Then why did you bother me?" Shadow growled.

"Fine, don't be happy for me." Tails said, sticking out his tongue. "I'll just toss it into the lake!"

"Then I'd just-"

"You can't use Chaos Control! You'd risk using too much energy and blowing yourself up!" Tails said triumphantly.

"…throw you in to go get it for me."

"Er…I wouldn't…rats."

"I win." Shadow said with a chuckle. He caught a glimpse of gold. "Is that it?"

Tails held out his hand, and Shadow took the ring. It was rather different from the simple loop he had on. In his palm, there was a golden cylinder that was half the length of his ear. There was a clasp for the piercing with a thin opening running the length so it would fit snugly on his ear.

"You like?" Tails asked, watching the expressionless face of Shadow. Shadow looked from the ring to the two-tailed kit.

"I like a lot. Good job," he said with a small smile. Tails beamed.

"So! Do you want it now or latter?"

Shadow closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. Tails was about to intervene, when Shadow reached up and quickly removed the temporary ring. Tails' fur stood on end as the air was charged suddenly with Chaos energy. He watched, frozen with battered breath, as Shadow planted the new ring onto his ear. He didn't move again until Shadow opened his eyes and grinned at the kit.

"Let's head bock for now," He said with a little smirk.

"Huh?" Tails said, breathing normally again. "Why would you want to back?"

"I'm hungry."

"Again?! What's up with that? You use to never eat anything. You didn't need to. And now you eat like Sonic."

"Shut up and feed me."

"Fine, fine. I'll make you some soup or something," Tails said, heading toward his workshop. "It's not like I have anymore food anyways."

"Sorry."

"No you're not."

"You're right, I'm not," Shadow said with a smirk. His smile faded and he sniffed the air. "Tails, hurry," He said, breaking into a run.

"What?"

"I smell smoke!"

Tails' eyes widened. Spinning his tails, he gained altitude and went straight up through the branches. When he cleared the leaves, he could see the smoke rising between the hill tops, where he was sure his workshop was.

He took off, flying right above Shadow with his toes skimming the tree tops below. By the time they arrived, his entire workshop was engulfed in flames. The frame had weakened from the heat and the whole structure was ready to collapse. Tails stood and stared while his third home was destroyed before his eyes.

"Why, look-y here!"

An amused, gruff voice reached Tails' and Shadow's ears. Shadow spun around to stare at a pack of dirty mountain bandits. Standing in front was a short boar, one that was so fat, his shirt looked ready to rip across his stomach. He was the filthiest of all, and Shadow wondered how he didn't smell the filthy leader before he saw him. Next to him was a scrawny lizard, just as filthy, wearing rags that barely clung to his frame. More and more bandits appeared, snickering and sneering, to surround Shadow and Tails in a circle.

"I do believe we found the owner of this lovely estate!" The boar said in his gruff voice, his tone rude and mocking. "Let's give these little city boys a mountain bandit hello!"

Shadow stood coolly watching the rams and lizards surround him. He was on his guard for any underhand tricks, but he wasn't too worried. He could take out the entire mob without much effort after all. He was more worried about the kit next to him. He hadn't even responded to the voice of the leader or the villains closing in around him. His big blue eyes were watching his home burn, watch his hobby and only paying job crumble under the collapsing walls.

"Which one of you did it?"

Shadow heard Tails' whispered question. Shadow was surprised to hear the kit's voice laced with venom. He was sure that none of the bandits could hear him over their laughter. He glanced nervously at the kit, sure he was going to do something stupid in his rage. The kit had his eyes squeezed shut, his head bowed. He looked ready to cry.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU DID IT? WHICH ONE OF YOU BURNED MY HOUSE?" Tails roared at the crowd. "ANSWER ME!"

Several bandits jumped back in surprise at the out burst. The scrawny lizard glanced nervously over to the boss. The rams and lizards exchanged looks before regaining their composure. They circled around the boy holding their crude axes and spears at the ready. The boss even swung his war hammer onto his shoulder before speaking again.

"Does it really matter? It's not like every one of us didn't want to see your house burn," The fat boar smirked. "It was an eye sore."

Shadow had his attention on Tails completely. Taunting Tails was uncalled for. Shadow reached out to touch the boy's shoulder and clam him. He snap his hand back quickly as a spear was thrown, whizzing through the air between them.

Shadow growled. He had enough of these bandits. He turned to the boss and glared up at him. His scrawny second gave a little cry of fear and began backing away.

"Those eyes say you want to tangle. Well, boy, I hope you're good. I would like to show off my-"

A massive explosion cut him off.

-0-0-

Tails rolled on to his back and stared up at the clear night sky. Half of him felt the cold chill of the night, while the other half could feel the warmth of a fire. Tails turned his head to stare mindlessly at the dancing tongues of light. In one ear, he heard the crackle of the burning wood and in the other the hooting owls and crickets. To the soothing sounds of the outside world, Tails turned his back to the fire and slipped back into peaceful sleep.

* * *

Shadow: Nng, you used that reviewers information and called Tails a kit. 

Trinity: Of course I did! If I didn't what would be the purpose of having reviewers? Sure I don't listen to _all_ of them, but still...

Tails: But pup sounded better for this story...

Trinity: Yeah, but...It's correct now. So let's not complain.

Shadow: I WANTED TO CALL HIM A PUP! A cute, little-!

Trintiy: (earases his mouth) I said _no_ complaining.

Tails: If you don't review her, Shadow may never get his mouth back! SO REVIEW!

Shadow: (gets on his knees and makes a begging motion)


	4. Chapter 4

Trinity: Aw, they love you Shadow! You get your mouth back. 

Shadow: W00T! (jig jig)

Tails: (sigh) That is so...

Shadow: Um...about this chapter...

Trinity: Oh yeah, it's kinda gory...at least that's what one of my friends said. I don't think so.

Shadow: What kind of world to you live in to beleive that?

Trinity: Shut up.

**I don't own any of the Sega characters.** Not even a finger of one...

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**Chapter 4- The Night Before**

The next morning, the first thing Tails recognized was the smell of burnt wood. His little nose leading him, Tails sat up and sniffed out the fire he slept next to the night before. He squinted against the bright morning sun and shaded his eyes with his hand. As his eyes came into focus he heard the hushed rush of the water in the river. He crawled over to the river bed and drank some water out of his cupped hands.

Tails stood up suddenly. He didn't know where he was. The riverbed he stood in was unfamiliar to him and he couldn't remember how he got there. He retraced his steps back to the place where the fire was and stood next to the ashes. Looking around, all he could find was trees and shrubbery. There were neither signs of the city Farsight nor any signs of his own house.

Becoming panicked, Tails spun around and around, looking for something familiar. He was too worried to leave the safety of the fireplace, and too scared to be isolated in the wild. He stopped spinning when he started to get dizzy and knelt down next to the ashes.

_I need to calm down and think_. Tails thought desperately. _What am I doing in this place anyways? How did I get here? I need to know…need to remember…_

Tails smelt Shadow. He could pick up Shadow's scent in the ashes, and next to spot where he slept. Tails remembered dragging the unconscious hedgehog home and waking him up and talking to him next to the lake. Shadow had put on the earring Tails made for him- another power ring. Shadow had approved the earring, and even gave him a small smile of praise. But then-

His house! The smoke in the distance-his house was on fire!

Tails jumped to his feet again, back in the present. He went to the riverbed and looked downstream. The water ran faster near his house, and the river was almost rapids next to Farsight. His house must be further downstream. All he needed to do was-

"Tails!"

Tails looked up from his position ready to take flight. Shadow's voice flitted to him from the fire place. Tails peeked over the buff and looked up at the dark hedgehog.

"I'm over here," He said quietly.

Shadow turned and looked down at the kit. He sighed in relief and went to the two-tailed boy. He sat on the riverbed and patted the dirt next to him. Tails joined him, glad to have some company.

"Are you alright?" Shadow asked after a while.

"What happened?" Tails asked. "Why wouldn't I be alright? What happened at my house?"

"It burned, Tails, burned to the ground," Shadow said, watching him carefully. "Bandits ransacked everything and burned what was left."

"I…the only thing I can remember is… how angry I was. So very angry. Shadow, what happened? How did I get here?"

"I brought you here. I didn't want you to see…such a mess."

"A mess? What do you…Shadow! You killed them, didn't you?!" Tails yelled.

"No, _I_ didn't. Don't you remember? Never mind. Its best you don't. Just listen," Shadow turned to Tails, and grabbed his shoulders. "Every one of us has a trigger. Mine is grief. Yours is apparently rage. You _have_ to keep your rage under control or something like this may happen again. You might get innocent people involved in it if you don't keep control."

"Something…like this?"

"Don't. Ask." Shadow said. His toned ended the Q & A.

Tails looked into the clear waters of the river. His own worried and disturbed features reflected on the glass surface. Something troubling nagged at the back of his mind. A fish skimmed under the surface and his reflection was warped into a terrifying beast. Tails looked away at the twisted reflection and instead followed the fish downstream with his eyes.

"Shadow?" he said quietly. He got a grunt for an answer. "Will you ever tell me? Tell me my own secret?"

Silence. Shadow was staring at the kit's rippling reflection on the waters surface.

"I won't have to." He said when those big blue eyes turned on him. "You'll remember it soon. Just…prepare for the worst."

-0-0-

Shadow walked next to the flowing river, heading downstream. He didn't expect Tails to remember any of it right away, but he didn't think he would figure it out within hours either. _I underestimated his reasoning skills. _He thought grimly._ He would make a good detective._ The burnt vegetation and the air charged with Chaos energy made him slow down. The sight of the pile of scorched frame work and ash came into view-as well as "the mess."

Shadow shuddered as his memory, clear as crystal, came to him while he looked over the scene.

_The gloating boar was all Tails could take. As the sight of his burning home and the thought of those filthy bandits proudly lighting it up sunk in, Tails' rage grew. The roar of laugher from the rams and lizards echoed in his ears. And now that fat, dumb boar was challenging Shadow? That just won't do._

_Shadow felt the prelude to the blast, felt the air spark to life, making every one of his hairs stand on end. He stopped listening to the boar talking the moment he started. Instead, he concentrated on the energy in the air. He barely had enough time to identify the source when he was knocked off his feet. Shadow threw his arms up in front of his face as he fell back. He rolled onto his stomach and wrapping himself in his own Chaos Energy as a whirlwind of Chaos energy swirled about, his arms over his head._

_Though safe, he dared not to raise himself too far off the ground, and only peeked over his arm. Most of the bandits stood roasted from the Chaos Blast, their blackened corpses unmoving in the torrent of wind and energy. The air itself seemed to be burnt black and the tiny grains of sand swirling about in the air, as if in a typhoon, became weapons that sliced through air and flesh._

_The rams and lizards that survived the initial blast, and were stupid enough to rise to feet, were torn to bloody shreds by the sand. Those who to stay down without cover got their backs cut open, their blood spraying into the swirling air in twirling fountains. The few smart ones took shelter under their dead comrades and were spared death, only to be granted to watch the horrible scene._

_Tails stood in the center of it all, his two tails and fur blown around in the wind. He had his jaw clenched and his clenched fist shaking with fury. The growl rolling in his chest and throat echoed louder than the roaring winds. His head was bowed and eyes were tightly shut. With his eyes squeezed shut, it looked like he was trying his hardest to block out everything around him, to fight back his the growing amounts of Chaos Energy within him._

_When his eyes snapped open, his blue eyes were several tints lighter, turning icy cold. He lips twisted into a smirk that struck terror in to Shadow's heart. He had gained complete control over his Chaos Energy. The kit raised his palm calmly toward the fat boar, who was laying several feet away. He rose into the air slowly, squealing in fear, as his arms were forced to his side and his legs clamped together. His fat protected him from the danger from the slicing grains of sand, but not from Tails._

_When Tails raised his eyes to look at his squealing and struggling victim, his smirk widening into a sick smile. Slowly, he began to curl his fingers into a fist, his palm directed at the boar's chest. The boar's squealing suddenly came to a halt, though his thrashing increased tenfold. He threw he head about, gasping and making a horrible shrill sound instead and he wiggled his body that was bound by the invisible links of Chaos energy this way and that._

_To Shadow, it looked like Tails was applying pressure to something in his palm, although nothing was there. The kits claws tips came closer and closer toward the center, crushing something with imaginary force. His eyes narrowed and his smirked widened yet again as he glared at the gasping boar. Blood had begun to pour out of his mouth and nostrils. Suddenly, Shadow understood that Tails had the boar's heart in his clutches._

"_NO!" Shadow's voice burst forth, moments too late. Tails smirked, and slammed his hand into a tight fist._

_The boar gagged, blood spurting out of his mouth and nose, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Finally, his body went still and lifeless, hanging in midair. The sand began to settle and the whirlwind died down. As if on cue, the survivors jumped to their feet to turn tail and run. Tails smirked and streaked after them, his wicked claws cutting them down and slicing them more that the sandstorm did. In mere moments, almost all were all dead._

_Shadow had risen to his feet the first moment he got as well. When he saw Tails' speed he was shocked frozen. Before Tails could reach the last of the bandits, Shadow lunged at him, standing in his way. He grabbed the Tails by the throat, picking him up off the ground._

"_Clam down, Tails," he growled at the kit, just as fierce as him. "You have to clam down and change back. You're not like this!"_

_The ram stood shaking for a moment, before turning tail. The flash of his movement caught Tails eye. With a defiant smirk, he shot the ram through the head with a Chaos Spear, spreading his blood and brains across the ground. With a roar, Shadow smashed his fist into the kit's temple, knocking him out. Shadow held the kit close, the scent of blood and feel of death over whelming._

-0-0-

Shadow growled to himself, his claws shredding the only standing beam of Tails' workshop. He remembered turning and running, with the kit in his arms. He stopped only when he showed signs of waking up soon. Shadow found a nice clearing near the river and placed the kit down to rest. He built the fire to keep him warm in the chilly night and actually hid when he began to stir awake.

Shadow sighed deeply and turned his weary eyes on the torn corpses. It looked like the local wild carnivores found the bandits as a free meal and visited the area recently. An arm or leg that was attached before were missing from most of them. Shadow watched the wind twist the leaves on branches heavy with fruit. He picked one and found it to be juicy and a bit sour.

_I can't wait any longer._ Shadow thought to himself. _I'll have to tell him about it. Tomorrow._

He picked three more and headed back to the camp site under a red sky, the sun hidden behind mountains.

* * *

Shadow: _Just a little gory? _A ten-year-old just commited mass murder! And you stuck as much detail as possible into it!

Trinity: Come on, it wasn't that bad...was it?

Tails: Ohmigod! I just _killed_ a whole bunch of people! With my _bare hands_!

Trinity: I can't tell, are youfrightened or happy about that?

Tails: Urm...I'm not sure...

Shadow: (sigh) People, just review this chapter. Trinity wants to know if she can do something like this again.

Trinity: Or how make the scene better! (XD)


	5. Chapter 5

Trinity: (typing like mad)

Shadow: Tsk tsk tsk. Looks like your running late.

Trinity: You're chapter had been finished already...

Shadow: Eh?

Trinity: This is for my Harry Potter story. I have to finish this and update my story.

Shadow: ...You-! That was internal advertisment!

Trinity: I like internal advertisment. It's as subtle as a gaint advertising sign in a game with higher resolution and b-e-a-u-tiful colors.

**I don't own Sega's characters.** Obviously.

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**Chapter 5– The War and The Legend**

Tails sat on a patch of sand, staring into the glassy surface of the rushing river water. He had stayed next to the river or went to sit in the shade of the trees all day. All through the afternoon, bits and pieces of a terrible slaughter flashed through his mind. He would see them in the reflection of the water, or the glare of the heat wave in the distance. Once, he saw a piece of the scene in the glossy eye of a singing bird.

As day cooled down and the sun dipped behind the mountains, Tails became restless. Shadow had disappeared shortly after their conversation, and he hadn't returned yet. He was sure that Shadow wasn't going to abandon him, but he still wanted to know where he went too. Every time he turned to dive into the river and swim downstream to his house, the thought of Shadow telling him to stay held him back. To occupy his mind, he went fishing instead.

As the sky above him turned red, Tails became uneasy and restless again. He had lost faith in himself and was worried what he might do in the dark of night. _Come on Tails,_ he thought reassuring to himself. _It's not like you're gonna transform into a terrible creature under the full moon…You're not like that. Shadow said it was rage that made me do that. Not the night…_

Tails heard a bush rustle up at the camp sight and light footfall. Tail's first thought was it was a thief, sneaking about the forest. He became worried when the foot steps came toward the riverbed. Tails scurried to hide in the tall grass, moving as quietly as he could. His heart raced in his chest and he watched the grasses barely a yard away tremble and reveal-

Shadow. Tails let out a breath, but kept low. A little playful smirk stole over his lips. Maybe he could-

"Come on, Tails. Get out of the grass." Shadow said with a roll of his eyes. "If you pounce on me, I'll eat your share of fruit."

"You never let me have any fun!" Tails pouted. He waddled out of the tall grasses and sniffed the fruit Shadow was holding out to him. "They're not ripe yet."

"Yeah, there a bit on the sour side. But it's nice and juicy and taste great. And unless you've managed to catch a fish, it's all we have."

Tails sighed and took the fruit from Shadow's outstretched hand. He took a little nibble of it and found it to be delicious. He snagged a second fruit from Shadow with a "yonk!" and ran off with them. Shadow rolled his eyes and trotted after him. He had already eaten his first fruit and was on his second one anyways.

Tails was up sitting on a thick branch high up in a tree, his fruit clamped firmly in his jaws. He was rummaging through the leaves while drinking the juices that flowed out of the fruit. He descended with an old, abandoned bird's nest that was conveniently shaped like a bowl. He dropped into the shrubbery below and started rummaging in the bushes.

"I love these berries!" Tails exclaimed happily. He held the "bowl" full of plump, orange berries above his head while waddling through the bushes. "They'll go great with the fruit you found!"

"Well, aren't you a happy camper," Shadow said dully. He started gathering the dead twigs that were scattered all around for the fire.

"Yeah! Camping's great! I just wish I could have caught some fish…"

"The fruit's fine, for now," Shadow said, looking over his shoulder in the direction Tails' voice drifted from. "Hey Tails, don't wonder of too far."

"You're starting to sound like an overprotective parent," Tails said. He stood up and looked over at Shadow. "You gonna adopt me?"

"How can someone who doesn't exist adopt you?" Shadow said with a sigh.

"What do you mean? You're right here!" Tails suddenly look uncertain. "Or am I hallucinating?"

"The government denies my existence, remember?"

"Well, that government is no more."

Shadow stared at Tails in alarm. "What do you mean? What's been happening while I was gone?"

"Gees, how could you not know? Then again, you didn't know anything about the war before…" Tails said as he plopped down next to the growing wood pile. "All I told you about was Sonic. Yeah, I have a lot of explaining to do."

Shadow got the fire going as the sky began to darken. One by one, little stars twinkled into view as the sky went from dark blue to inky black. Shadow sat with his back to the fire, looking at the river glistening under the moon's glow. Tails sat with his legs outstretched eating his dinner out of the old nest. When he was through, he turned to Shadow and settled down for a nice long talk.

"Okay, mister hedgehog," Shadow scowled at the smirking kit. He hated being called "mister" because it made him sound old (which he is). "Let's talk about the war.

"The first attack was launched on a desert trading town four years ago, the exact day you went missing. It was a devastating attack that left the town in absolute ruins. There were no survivors found in or near the destruction. As a matter of fact, most of the people who lived in that town were said to have simply disappeared. No sign of their bodies, or even remains, were ever found.

"This incident repeated itself in other major towns all through the week, spreading out into the east. Bustling cities turning into burning, abandon towns over night. And all the residents simply disappeared, as if they never excited there in the first place. The military became very active, ready to move out when the word came. And the word came, about a month latter.

"At devastated cities that were along a certain line of longitude, large robotic armies appeared. The scientists and their military escorts who were station there were slaughtered. The robotic army began their march into the east, fanning north and south, destroying everything in its path. Forests burned, waters polluted, the soil covered in our blood. In the first year, the war covered half the globe.

"Our first thought was that Eggman had finally come up with a good plan for world domination. One that didn't require getting red of Sonic first. But…but they found his body at one of his destroyed bases. Perhaps they, his robots, joined that army and marched on, because nothing of Eggman's army was found.

"When Sonic found out, something seemed to click with him. As if he suddenly understood what was happening. He left for battle during the second year. He…did something unusual then. He left a letter telling us where he went. He never leaves us notice when he runs off. I wish he would have told us why he was going though, what it was that he noticed.

"Sonic disappeared at the end of the second year. By the middle of year three, the entire globe was engulfed in the destructive flame of the robotic army. The government officials had been killed, one by one. The army reduced to a few cut off squadrons. Only home town militia groups protected small groups of traveling survivors.

"Then, the robots just stared dropping, as if a pelage, a virus, had started spreading among them. It might have been some sort of self-destructive program that was set off when they completed their objective. What ever it was, it did what we couldn't do in three years in just three days- completely destroy the robotic army. Unfortunately, by this time, most of the world had been reduced to desolate wastelands.

"Most of the life on this planet has been killed off. The soil-robbed of its nutrients and filled with the poison from the robots. Most of the world's water is poisoned too. Next to zero vegetation can be found in most parts of the world, and most of things that manage to grow are poisoned. It's a true wonder how places like this valley survived, untouched. This entire forest would have been nothing more than burnt remains if it was anywhere else in the world."

Tails looked up the tops of the trees with wonder and a bit of melancholy. He was obviously very glad that he was sitting in one of the last forests of the world. The valley he came to with an old couple two years ago was spared the destruction of the world. They found other refuges and they built log cabins next to the river. And now, the once small town of Farsight has become a lively city, filling the broken world with hope.

Tails smiled to himself.

"This will become the capital of the untied world," he said to himself. "I know it will."

Shadow sat with his eye's closed, his ears listening to the rushing river. One of the last pure and clean rivers. He heard to sound of fish jumping out of the water to catch bugs skimming the moonlit surface. An owl hooted, then snatched the small fish from the waters surface and swooped into the high branches of a tree across the river. Shadow lifted his head looked over at the smiling kit.

"Tails, did you notice it?" he said after his moment of deep thought.

"Notice what?" Tails asked curiously.

"Sonic. He disappeared like the people at the beginning of the war," Tails sat up attentively, his mind sparked into life. "I don't know where they went, but Sonic went after them."

"And they have to be alive somewhere," Tails said, looking around as if he saw it all in a new light. "Those people had to have disappeared for a reason. But why?"

"I don't know, and-" Shadow paused, looking unsure. "I'm not sure, but it might have something to do with this legend I heard."

"A legend?" Tails said, looking skeptical.

"It has to do with Chaos emeralds and their power," Shadow sat still for awhile and stared into the flames.

"Are you going to tell me this legend?" Tails asked impatiently.

"_When the world's end is nigh, and the beginning of the end has begun, the sky, and earth, and water will turn to poison. The plants shall parish in a world as such, and the creatures will dwindle to nothing. The people of the land will fall from this earth to the Next, living without life._

_The people will suffer loss and pain, and they will know despair. They will gain no hope of ever living a good life again. They will be the lost, the forever miserable spirits of the Next._

_When the world's end is nigh, and the world plunges into despair, the time of Chaos is at hand. The Emeralds power will be given to the seven and the end of the end begins. The seven beings will defeat the eighth, the Guardian. At the Guardian's death, the portal of the next earth will appear in his blood. The seven will cast their divine rule on those who lived without it before._"

Tails sat wide-eyed, staring at Shadow. Shadow took a deep breath and looked into the kit's eyes.

"Did you understand what I was saying?"

"Of course not! What is 'living without life' suppose to mean?"

"Living without a god," Shadow said with a smile. "But you could make out what I was saying, right? Like I wasn't speaking a different language, right?"

"Excuse me? You were-!"

"No, I wasn't. I spoke in the language that the legend was told to me in." Shadow smirked at Tails awestruck face.

* * *

Trinity: Mwah ha ha ha ha ha!

Shadow: Erm, are you alright?

Trinity: No. I'm insane, remember?

Tails: Yeah, that makes us feel good.

Shadow: When are you gonna add other characters?

Trinity: In two or three chapters. And only if I get lots o' reviews! (wink wink nudge nudge)

Tails: A not so subtle hint! (XD)


	6. Chapter 6

Shadow: (sigh) I'm bored.

Trinity: Shadow, how old is Tails?

Shadow: Um...ten?

Tails: WHAT?

Shadow: Urm...not ten?

Trinity:(:3) You're dead.

Tails: I'M GONNA KILL YOU!

**I don't own Sega's characters.** Cause if I did...well...

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**Chapter 6 – Leaving the Valley**

Tails' face was still frozen in a look of shock. He gazed up into Shadow's face as if he was a sage, his mouth hanging open. Shadow was still chuckling at him in amusement and waited for Tails to calm down. Tails' jaw snapped shut.

"Were you really-?"

"Yes," Shadow said, rolling his eyes. "The language has no name, like the ancient people who spoke it. I've just called it the Legend's Language. The only time I heard it spoken was when the legend was told to me anyways."

"So, wait. This isn't a legend, it's a prophecy?" Tails asked.

"Well, yeah. It's been passed down orally from priest to priest for who knows how long," Shadow said with a shrug. Tails let out a sigh and turned to the flames of their camp fire. Shadow picked up a thin stick. "Want me to write it down for you?"

"Yes please. I want to take a closer look at it."

Shadow carved a square into the earth next to the flickering flames. In the square, he wrote the three verses of the legend in English. When he was finished, Shadow threw the thin twig into the flames and lay down on the other side, tucking his hands behind his head. Tails crawled on his hands and knees next to the writing and began to read, the fire his only light. _Wow,_ he thought to himself, _Shadow's hand writing is really neat._

"So…this 'beginning of the end'…that phase has already past, hasn't it?"

"I suspect so. That war accomplished the setting the ledged said the world would be like, right?"

"Yeah…" Tails said, returning to the writing. "Then this 'divine rule' the seven cast upon this other world… Do we become _gods_?" Tails said jubilantly.

"Pretty much," Shadow said with a little shrug. Tails' blue eyes lit up at the very notion.

"But, the eighth being," Tails said, his enthusiasm fading. A hint of anxiety entered his voice "this Guardian…that we have to kill…" Shadow looked straight into Tails eyes and nodded once.

"We're the ones who make the echidnas extinct."

-0-0-

Shadow went to sleep fairly quickly after Tails' short list of questions. Tails himself was sitting up, wide awake, next to the dieing embers. His head was tilted back as he observed the stars sparkling high above in the inky black sheet that was the sky. The blanket of darkness that wrapped around him hid the look upon his face.

_I can't kill Knuckles._ Tails thought to himself. _I can't kill anyone._

(_But you can,_) whispered a voice in the back of his mind. (_After all, you've done it before._) Images of the gruesome death of a certain group of bandits flashed through Tails' mind.

_NO! That…was an accident…I didn't…_Tails shuddered.

(_But you did! And you could-you can do it again._)

Tails wrapped his arms around himself and whimpered. He blocked out the voice goading him and shuddered again. He remembered the feeling that the power over another's life and their spilt blood on his hands had giving him. The fact was he _could_ kill again. And it was that prospect, that possibility that scared the kit the most.

The silver orb known as the moon had moved from one side of the sky to another in its wide, arcing travels around the world. Tails was still trembling next to the ashes of the camp fire when the sky began to lighten. He had been afraid to sleep- afraid to dream- about the voice that night. He was curled up on his side, staring blankly into the remnants of the fire. Shadow was quiet alarmed to find the kit in this state when he awoke that morning.

"Tails? Tails!" Shadow shook the fox out of his stupor and pulled him into a sitting position. "What happened to you?"

"Didn't… sleep," he murmured struggling to keep his head up. "Couldn't… too scared."

"Scared? There's nothing to be frightened about boy," Shadow slipped his arm under Tails' knees and picked him up carefully. He carried him to the river and did something Tails wasn't expecting. He dumped the kit into the cool, rushing river water.

"Gah!" Tails said, trashing around in the water.

Tails was momentarily swept away, disappearing under the surface of the rushing water. Shadow walked casually along the river, following the shadow swirling just under the water's surface. He popped up again a few yards downstream, clinging to the shore and coughing up water. He pulled himself out of the water, gasping for breath and collapsed in the tall grass. Shadow simply walked up to him and smirked down at the panting two-tailed fox.

"Did that wake you up?" Shadow asked in an amused tone.

"Wake me up?! You nearly killed me!" Tails snapped.

"But I didn't, and you're all better now," Shadow said, still smirking.

"All better?! You're parenting _sucks_!" Tails shouted, sitting up. "I change my mind, there is no way in hell I'd let you adopt me!"

"Like you'd have a choice. You're, what, ten years old?"

"I'M TWELVE!" Tails roared, looking scandalized.

"Eh? You're really twelve?" Shadow said, genuinely shocked. "Aren't you a bit…small?"

"I suffer from malnutrition for two years!" Tails said matter-of-factly, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Well, I guess it makes sense…" Shadow said, speaking to himself. "You were eight when I left and- one, two, three- four years have past…"

Tails sighed, and watched Shadow turn and walk away, muttering to himself. Tails shifted so he was standing steady on all fours. He shook himself wildly from head to tail and spun all the water off his coat. Shadow was still walking away, heading toward Farsight, so Tails had to jogged to catch up to him.

"Shadow? Why are we headed for town?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're leaving the valley."

"What?" Tails stopped.

"We're leaving the valley to fulfill that prophecy," Shadow explained. "We're going to find the other five beings of Chaos. So before we go, we should stock up on food. It's not like we'd find much out there…"

"Shadow…" Tails' ears drooped. "I can't do this, Shadow. I can't…kill Knuckles. Or anyone else for that matter."

"This is why I had my doubts about you," Shadow said, looking over his shoulder at Tails. "You're a lot friendlier than me, and you're going to be a lot kinder than the others, I suspect. You might not be able to kill Knuckles, but I…"

A strange look crossed Shadow's face. His eyes were narrowed and his fist clenched at his sides. Tails had seen the look before, but he couldn't remember where and when he saw it, or why he looked so hurt and enraged. All the same, Tails felt unsettled by the dark look in his eyes. When Shadow turned his red eyes on Tails, he flinched.

"I don't have any qualms about destroying the people who get in my way."

-0-0-

For one reason or another, it was a common understanding that one wore clothes in town. When it got around that Tails' house had been burnt down by bandits and all his belongs were gone, they gladly gave him- and Shadow- clothes. Tails received a pair of blue jean shorts and a plain white shirt, as well as a red hoodie. Shadow, on the other hand, had to forgo a shirt. His quills made it difficult for the young village women to force any shirt over his head. Instead, the girls got him the tightest black pants they could find- and forced him into them.

"Humor them," Tails said, smirking at the brooding hedgehog. "You've got to be the hottest guy they're every seen."

"They could at least give me something a little loser," Shadow growled, tugging at the tight fabric. "These feel like they're gonna rip in two at any moment."

In the end, they gave Shadow another pair of pants that weren't so tight, but they refused to let him change into them. They were offered new pairs of gloves to replace his old and ripped ones. Tails discarded his old gloves and got a pair of black leather gloves similar to the pair that caught his eye on his last visit. These were a fingerless pair, but unlike his old ones, they were made like that. Shadow discarded his old gloves as well, but declined the offer.

"They'll just get ruined while we're out there anyways," He said lightly.

"Out…there?" said one of the town's people.

"We're leaving the valley," Tails explained. Everyone up and down the street gasped.

The news of Farsight's favorite boy machinist leaving the valley had traveled through the streets, and within an hour, everybody knew. The people didn't try to stop him, but instead, they all but buried him with food and supplies. Both Tails and Shadow acquired traveling cloaks from a middle-aged couple living at the outskirts of town. Even though they were old and worn, the two of them received them gratefully. Children who idolized Tails run up to him in the streets to hand him little bags filled with their mothers dried foods. The village girls (the ones who dressed Shadow) returned with leather flasks that they filled with water for the two of them. One old man even gave his prized position, a well made pocket knife, to the young fox.

By the end of the day, Tails and Shadow were laden with gifts. They got free board in the inn owned and run by one of the village girl's family. They spent the rest of the afternoon in their third floor room, carefully packing everything into backpacks. They stored food and water carefully, planning the rations to last for at least two weeks.

"Who knows how long it will take to get to the nearest occupied town after all," Shadow said, looking over a map that was made just before the war. "I'm sure none of the major cities are still standing."

"There are only three places that I can think of on that map that still exist," Tails said while playing with the pocket knife. "But bandits and criminals hide out in the ruins of those cities, and the bounty hunters that chase them cause even more damage. Any place on that map that still exists today would be like that. They're all dangerous places that only provide temporary shelter because of the toxins in the area."

"Dangerous places, huh?' Shadow said thoughtfully. "Come here and show me where those three towns are."

Tails marked three cities north of the valley where Farsight laid. The small town of High Hill was closest, with June Square not too far away. Some distance away, along a gulf shore was what was marked as huge port city called Blacken. Shadow's eyes swept across the map, looking between the three towns. He calculated the time and distance it would take to travel to all three.

"Shadow, you're not thinking of going to these places, are you?" Tails asked nervously.

"Why not?" Shadow said, going through their rations again. "Where else to start looking for someone with power? I wouldn't be surprised if one or two of the other Chaos beings turn out to be hard core criminals. So unless you know where to find our old friends…"

Shadow stopped. He didn't even have to look over his shoulder to know the look on the kit's face. Tails was a young boy, nothing more than a child, and he was here, alone in a valley after a terrible war had ravaged the planted. _Of course he doesn't know where anyone is, he probably doesn't even know if any of them survived._ Shadow thought.

"Yeah, I know where to find them. At least…" Tails said with a touch of sadness in his voice. Shadow looked over his shoulder reluctantly. "At least, I know where to find their graves. Amy…When Sonic left, Amy took it upon herself to take care of me. When the battle reached our front door, when we were fleeing the destruction…we got separated and I lost sight of her, but I heard her…screams."

"And Cream…and Big…and even the Chaotix! They're all…gone. Sonic even had to go run off and disappear too. The only one who I'm unsure of is Rouge. She up and left a few months after you, when word of the robot army and Eggman's death reach us."

Tails stood shaking again, his wide eyes staring at the floor as he remembered the things he wished he could forget forever. Tears that he hoped to never see again rolled down his cheeks and fell to the floor. Shadow stood with his back to Tails, letting him cry silently. He felt awkward, like he wanted to comfort the boy but didn't know what to do. How could he comfort Tails when he couldn't even overcome his own sorrows?

* * *

Shadow: Awwww...poor Tails.

Tails: What, can't give me a hug?

Shadow: (shrug) Apparently not.

Trinity: ...I said early that Tails was eleven...Oh well. Let's call it a typo!

Tails: Reveiw me, or I'll be a sad, depressed kit for a very long time!


	7. Chapter 7

Trinity: This chapter is pretty short...

Shadow: Why?

Trinity: I couldn't find anything else to stick in it. I think I'm experiencing writers block...

Shadow: You'll get over it...

Tails: (curled up in a corner)

Shadow: ...Is he going to be alright?

**I don't own Sega**

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**Chapter 7 – The Dark World**

Tails had stopped crying awhile ago. He stood there with his head down, swaying slightly, with a blank mind. He felt odd, like a weight he hadn't notice before, one he got so use to carrying around, had finally been lifted off his chest. He vaguely wondered if this had to do with the crying or talking to Shadow.

A warm arm wrapped around Tails' shoulders and he leaned into the owner's chest for support. Shadow led Tails to his bed and laid him down on his side. He pulled the sheets underneath the kits chin and sat on the edge of the bed. Tails was staring still staring ahead with dull, blank eyes. After a while, the kit slipped into quiet sleep. Shadow watched as the kit's eyes fluttered, then finally slid shut. He stroked the fur on the back of his head gently.

"Don't leave me," Tails murmured in his sleep. Tears gathered at the corner of his eyes.

"I won't. I won't abandon you," Shadow whispered back. He rubbed the soft fur between his Tails' ears. "I promise."

The kit didn't respond but slept a bit more peacefully. Shadow rose from the edge of Tails' bed and turned off the lights, tossing those too tight pants into the corner. He lay down on his own bed, his hands behind his head, and stared up at the ceiling. The moonlight came through the window to decorate the walls in bars of white light. The black hedgehog watched the bars slide slowly down the walls to the floor. Shadow did not sleep that night.

Shadow snapped out of his night long stupor when he saw new golden bars of light were splashed against the walls. He sat up and stretched, then glanced over to the fox boy's bed. Tails was curled up under the sheets, his hand hanging over the side of the bed. The sheets rose and fell with his rhythmic breathing and his fingers twitched every so often.

_I'll let him sleep in._ _He said he didn't sleep last night anyways. _Shadow though as he wrapped himself in the travelers cloak. He wanted to make sure it fit him well. _He's going to need his strength later._

Shadow left the third floor room wrapped in the cloak, not bothering to put on pants. He went down to the tavern on the first floor, where he smelt breakfast being cooked. His mouth watered when he picked out the particular scent of juicy, freshly cooked sausage. When he found that guests at the inn had a complimentary buffet for breakfast, there was no holding back.

Once he had his fill, Shadow made a plate of food for Tails. Putting the plate and a pitcher of orange juice on a tray, he went back up stairs to their room. Tails was still fast asleep at that early hour of morning, so Shadow left the tray on his bed stand. Tails didn't stir until late in the morning, and his food had long since gone cold.

"Nng. 'Morning Shadow," Tails slurred. He sat up with the sheet hanging off his left ear.

"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine," Shadow said. He raised an eyebrow at the boy's appearance. Tails tugged the sheet off his head and looked at the tray next to his bed.

"Is this for me?" he asked.

"Yeah, but it's cold now. Unless they can warm it for you downstairs, you should just throw it away. We'll just go get more, if they're still serving breakfast."

Tails grunted and ate the cold food anyways. He washed it all down with the whole pitcher of orange juice. Shadow chuckled and rose from his spot at the table. He grabbed Tails' bag and tossed it at the disgruntled kit. Tails caught it and snarled at Shadow. He was clearly not a morning person.

"Don't snarl at me boy," Shadow said, rapping Tails on the top of his head with his knuckles. Tails clipped his teeth at him and got plucked in the nose. Tails yapped.

"What was that for?!" He snapped, rubbing his nose.

"What's with your attitude?" Shadow replied. "You just tried to bite me."

Tails grumbled angrily as he pulled on his jeans and red hoodie. Shadow frowned at the grumpy kit of a while then turned his attention to the world outside the window. Shadow understood why Tails was particular sour this morning. He was once again walking away from the place he had once called home. He was turning his back on all the people he had gotten to know, the bunnies and bears walking in the streets below, with the thought that he would never see them again.

Tails put on the stuffed backpack, shifting it on his shoulders. Shadow slipped his on too, and crossed the room to the door. His keen eyes swept the room to make sure they left nothing behind. Tails carried the tray and pitcher in his hands so he could bring them down stairs. They left them in the dinning area and walk out of the inn into the crowded street. People fell silent as they walked past them and watched them walk out of the gates of the city of Farsight, never to return.

Shadow and Tails followed the river out of the valley. The further downstream they went, the more rapid-like the river became. Soon, they reached a waterfall that cascaded down a steep cliff and emptied into a pool of sparkling blue waters. The mist from the falls wet their fur and cooled them off considerable in the hot afternoon. Tails glided down while Shadow leaped from rock to slippery rock. Shadow had lost his footing on the rocks quiet a few times, and almost plummeted down into the waters below, but caught hold of another rock and pulled himself up.

The cliff from which the river water cascaded over was at the edge of the tall mountains that made the valleys. The mountains had formed a protective circle-like barrier that left the valley pure and clean, unlike the environment just outside the mountains. Here, the waters slowed and began to change into a nasty shade of green. The vibrant green plants that flourished in the valley became sparse and far between. The air was unnaturally heavy and it seemed they were heading into smog.

Shadow and Tails came to a point where the river was nothing more than a trickle of discolored, muddy water that trickled over the dusty soil. The ground elsewhere was dry, and cracked. The blackened, jagged statues of burned trees and crumpled dead plants dotted the landscape before them. Nothing but the two travelers and wind blown dust moved across the land. And though they moved at a fast pace, the mountains were not that far behind them yet. However, some kind of haze obscured their view so only the dark silhouettes of the lovely mountains loomed behind them. Even more disconcerting was the yellow gas that mingled with the dust hovering just above their ankles. Shadow pointed it out to Tails.

"It's a heavy, poisonous gas," the two-tailed fox explained, watching it swirl around his legs with each step he took. "There's no problem as long you don't get a big whiff of it. Because it's so dense, that's not all that likely to happen. Still, we'll have to find a high place to sleep."

While the gas was of no threat at the moment, the haze and dust were. Shadow pulled the ragged collar of the cloak over his nose and mouth. Tails slipped the hood of his jacket over his head, and pulled the strings so tight, only his eyes were exposed in the opening. They walked through the desert wasteland like this, but in complete silence for hours. The haze blocked the sunlight, but it was still hot enough so they had no energy to speak.

As the sun dipped below the horizon in the west, so did the temperatures. Tails took the lead, flying so he could find a good place to rest. Just as his teeth began to chatter from the intensifying cold, he spotted a rock formation ahead. They raced there and were lucky enough to find a small cave with an opening several feet up the side.

Shadow scaled the almost flat rock face and slipped into the small opening that was tilted toward the sky. Tails dropped in after him and immediately sought to warm himself. Shivering like mad, he dropped his bag and curled into a tight ball in the corner. Shadow, a little less affected by the cold, unpacked Tails' blanket and wrapped it around the kit. Shadow pulled out his own sheet and lays next to Tails, starring out at the stars twinkling dully through the haze.

Shadow felt Tails press closer to him. The yellow ball of fur cuddled up next to the warmth of Shadow's side. He wrapped his tails around himself and, now comfortably warmed, stops shaking. Shadow chuckled at the kit when he peeks out from under his sheets at him. Shadow pats the fox's head and looks back up at the stars. Curled up in the cold silence of the desert-like wastelands, Tails spends his first night in the dark, devastated world.

* * *

Tails: ...

Trinity: Aw...cuddling...

Tails: That's wrong on so many different levels...

Shadow: I pet you a lot in this chapter...

Tails: Ah...yup...

Trinity: Review me purrdy please!


	8. Chapter 8

Trinity: SHADOW!

Shadow: (0.o') Tell Trinity I'm sorry! (Chaos Controls far, _far_ away)

Tails: Eh? What did you do?

Trinity: I'LL GET YOU FOR THAT! RUNNING AROUND IN MY OTHER SOTRIES! YOU'LL PAY!

Tails: ...You aren't gonna use _me_ in your revenge, are you?

Trinity: ...Weeeeeell...there's no guarantee...

Tails: ...

**I don't own Sega.** And the ruler won't work...oh wait...

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**Chapter 8 – Oasis**

Within a week, more than half of their water was gone. Most of the water had gone to the kit. The heat was more than Tails could take at times and he had collapsed on more then one occasion. Shadow, though not used to it, was made to withstand such extremes. He would carry the unconscious kit to the closest shady area he could find and dig them a cool little pit to rest in, careful to keep the kit's head above the yellow gas. They lost a lot of time hiding from the high noon sun.

But by the end of that week, the kit had adjusted to the heat. He didn't pass out so often and he knew when to start looking for shelter, not just to avoid the heat of noon, but also the cold of night. He would follow right behind Shadow until the temperatures reached a certain point, then he would take flight and lead the way for half an hour or so. And all through the burning day, they kept their noses and mouths covered to prevent inhaling the dust and yellow gases.

At the end of the second week, Shadow and Tails faced their first sandstorm. Shadow spotted the whirling wall of dust and sand coming toward them from the west. Tails took off, searching for a good place to take cover and spotted what appeared to be a lone building in the distance. Shadow and Tails raced toward the building, trying to get there before the storm.

As they approached, they could see that the building was a temple. The temple had almost all of its windows blown in and chunks of the thick stone walls were missing. All around the structure was the rubble of other collapsed and destroyed buildings. One burnt tree stood crooked next to the doors of the temple. Nothing but a shattered stump was left of the second tree.

Shadow and Tails ducked into the front doors as the wind screamed by. Sand still blew in through the broken windows and flew through the air. They ran toward a room in the back of the temple with their heads down so the sand wouldn't get into their eyes. They wrenched open the double doors and entered the pitch black, windowless room. Shadow fumbled blindly in his backpack then pulled out a pair of glow sticks. Snapping them, he handed one to Tails and held his up to get a better look around the dark room.

"We're in a city aren't we?" Tails asked quietly, walking around the room.

"What's left of one," Shadow said solemnly.

Shadow cast an eye around the dark room. The room seemed to be some sort of storage area, filled with old portraits, handcrafted furniture of precious wood, and trinkets of silver and gold. It seemed as if people had stuffed their prized belongings into this room for safe keeping. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust and the air was stale. The huge doors rattled in their frames as the wind blew through the temple on the other side.

_The rich fools probably hid all this stuff in here during the war. _Shadow thought to himself, pulling out the map. _None of this has any real sentimental value. They just didn't want to get red of all this expensive junk._

"I think this is Flora City. We're not too far from High Hill now," Shadow said aloud, startling Tails.

"Flora City? There's supposed to be an oasis somewhere in the city," Tails said thoughtfully. "We can get some more water while we're here."

"Do you think the water will be clean?"

"I hope so. If not, well…" Tails' voice drifted off. He examined a large portrait of a fat bull anthro in army uniform with mild interest. He looked like a high ranking officer.

"We can make it on what we have now. But we'll go check it out once the storm blows over," Shadow said.

Shadow took off his pack and cloak and shook all the sand off of them, then sat on the dirty floor. Taking off his shoes, Shadow pours the dust and sand out of them, frowning at the small pile he made. Tails also shakes off his pack and hoodie. He leaves them on one of the dusty tables and struggles out of his shorts. Shadow notices a strange look cross his face as he pats sand off his thighs.

"I have sand in places I didn't know existed," Tails muttered sourly. Shadow snickered. "What, and you don't?"

"Well, I happen to know all the places where the sand went, thank you." Shadow said with a smirk. Tails gagged. Shadow suddenly became serious. "Tails, where did all this sand come from? I've only seen dry, cracked ground since we've left."

"There's a desert- a true sand desert- to the west, where the storm blew in from," he explained. "It's a small desert, but it's growing. Sandstorms like this one is pushing its boundaries east and south, making the desert spread across the land. I assume it will reach the mountains in a few -."

A piercing, shattering sound interrupted Tails and the screaming wind becomes louder and the doors rattle in their frames twice as hard. Outside, another of the temples windows was smashed to pieces. Shadow eyed the door shaking behind him with a small frown. They ate lunch in silence and took an afternoon nap. By time they awoke, the storm had passed. They changed into their extra clothes and left the room of treasures to find the ruin outside the door.

Chips of stone and glass were imbedded into the thick heavy doors. Shadow even found a rock wedged between the top corner of the door and its frame. One of the doors leading outside was hanging off its hinges. Shadow pushed it aside and stepped out into the bright sunlight. The storm had cleared away the haze and yellow gas, but Shadow was sure it would all be flowing back into the area over the next few days. At the moment, all the ruins were covered in sand and pebbles and shards of colored glass. Tails hopped onto one of the large chunks of stone wall sitting next to the door and looked around.

"I think the oasis is that way!" Tails said, pointing toward what he was sure the center of town. He hopped of the stone and followed Shadow in heat of the afternoon.

Tails had changed into his extra pair of shorts he had and was trekking through the rubble with his white tee tossed over his should carelessly. He had carefully packed his sandy clothes away, not wanting to get the rest of his stuff covered in sand. Shadow walked about in his oh-so-tight pants with a pair of shades on his nose to block out the annoyingly bright sun.

Climbing over, under and around the broken blocks of stone and toppled houses was tiring. The layer of sand that covered everything made it difficult to keep one's footing and the heat made it impossible for Tails to fly for more than a couple of minutes. Instead, they climbed on top of tall piles of rubble to see further ahead. There was one particularly large piece of stone with a float top they decided to climb on top of to get a better view. Shadow pulled himself over the edge and dragged Tails up after him.

"It's so hot…" Tails moaned, collapsing on top of the stone. Shadow was staring at the back of his bare hand.

"You know, I forgot that I had gotten red of my gloves," Shadow turned his hand over and flexed his fingers. "I kinda miss the feeling of cloth…Are you okay?"

Shadow bent over the panting kit that was sprawled across the stone. His eyes were squeezed shut to block out the blinding sunlight and his mouth was hanging open. Tails groaned again, snapped his jaws shut, and forced himself to sit up. He glanced at the sun hanging at a late afternoon position and guessed it was somewhere around four-five o'clock.

"I hate heat," Tails growled.

"Don't worry about it, kid. We only have a few hours of daylight left," Shadow said, pulling the fox to his feet. "What the-"

Shadow and Tails were standing at the edge of a huge gapping hole in the ground. Tails could see the collapsed pipe lines below. Some of the rubble had rolled down into the bowl-shaped crater and rested in piles on the ground far below. It looked like something had carefully carved out a perfect bowl shaped indention into the ground, cleaning cutting the layers of rock and metal pipelines far below the ground.

"The storm couldn't have this," Shadow said, looking across the mile wide gap to the land at the other side. "Is this from the war?"

"It looks like it," Tails said, peering closely into the pipes and tunnels. His blue eyes narrowed. "HEY!"

Tails jumped over the edge of the crater, spinning his tails to slow his descend. Shadow, surprised by his sudden outburst, jumped in after him, sliding down the side of the crater. Tails hit the ground running and bolted into one of the many tunnels. Shadow took off after him, jumping into the cool, dark tunnel. The black hedgehog ran along the small tunnel and almost plowed over Tails when he stopped right in front of him. They were standing at the mouth of the tunnel, in a tall stone room where three other tunnels connected.

"What the heck was that all about?" Shadow snapped, taking off his shades so he could see better. "What are we-?"

"Shh!"

A muscle under Shadow's eye twitched, but he remained silent. Tails was carefully looking down all three, his nose and ears twitching, and it was apparent he was searching for something. One of his ears flicked, and he turned toward the tunnel to the right, his ears swiveling atop his head to center sound on his eardrum. Shadow listened too, but all he heard was an odd squeaking sound from the tunnel to the right, which quickly came to an end. Shrugging, Tails and Shadow went down the tunnel anyways.

"I thought I saw someone down here," Tails explained.

"You saw someone?" Shadow said. He was uncomfortably bent over so he wouldn't bump his head.

"Yeah," Tails said with a nod. "I thought I saw him dodge into this tunnel. But then we came to the intersection and now… now I'm not so sure."

"You must have scared him when you shouted."

"I think he was scared just to see us. Remember, most people who wander around the wastelands are crooks. If the kid is living here alone…"

Tails voice faded away and they continued in silence. Although the underground pipes have long since dried, the soft sounds of trickling water could be heard under their echoing footsteps. They walked down the tunnel until they came to a portion that had collapsed and their path was blocked with debris. Tails stared at the stone pile and groaned.

"Dead end," Shadow said, sitting on his heels. "There's nobody here after all."

"Well, at least we should be closer to the oasis. Listen, you can-"

A small squeak interrupted him. Shadow and Tails looked over their shoulders at the wall of rubble and saw a most peculiar sight. Curled in a gap between the wall and the debris was a young, grey mouse. She wore a filthy, tattered green dress that hung loosely off her bony shoulders. Her hair and fur was as filthy as her dress, but her brown eyes were sharp and bright. She was obviously attempting to hide from them, blending in nicely with the gray and mossy debris.

"Um, hi?" Tails tried, taking a step toward the girl.

The mouse girl gave another terrified squeak that echoed down the tunnel. She wiggled backward, working her way deeper into the debris. Little rays of sunlight started piercing the darkness of the tunnels as she wiggled away, until a large gapping hole in the bottom of the debris let in a blinding shaft of light. The hole was evidently a quick way out of the tunnel and back to the surface.

Tails scurried into the passage after her and came out into the blinding light of dusk. Shielding his eyes, he found that he was standing in the middle of a cleared street. Here and there, the rubble was pushed into piles at the side of the streets. The buildings suffered a lot less damage here too. Buildings cramped together stood two or three floors high with jagged walls, suggesting they were once much higher. Even most of the windows on the remaining floors were still intact.

And there were people. Almost all of them were mice or weasel anthros. They stood motionless in the doorways of the buildings or on the sidewalk at the side of the street. Children peeked through dirty windows, around piles of rubble or the legs of adults. They whispered to one another excitedly or fearfully, pointing at the two tailed fox. These filthy people who stood staring at the boy were the sole survivors of the attack on their city.

Shadow step up next to Tails. The appearance of a second being seemed to snap the people back into life. In a sudden panic, mothers ushered their children out of the streets and into the buildings. The faces in the grimy windows disappeared from view. Men and women gathered in a semi-circle in the streets, facing Shadow and Tails. One particularly ragged-looking weasel stood a bit ahead of the others, a piece of wood resembling a bat in his hands. They stood glaring at Shadow and Tails, as if waiting for something.

"Is this a bad time?" Tails called out, sounding a bit naive.

The crowd bristled as if they had been insulted by the simple-ness of the question. An angry buzz spread through the crowd and those with weapons in there hands held them at the ready. Shadow moved to stand in front of Tails, eying the enraged crowd. He wasn't sure, but it looked like the people who appeared standing in the broken windows had bows in their hands.

"I'll take that as a no," Tails muttered, staring at the weasel with a bat.

"Tails, be careful. I think those guys at the windows have bows."

"Shadow, I've dodged lasers and gunfire for, what, six years?" Tails said, feeling underrated. "I think I can handle some measly arrows."

"Don't underestimate a desperate family group," Shadow muttered, glancing back at Tails. "You'd be surprised what they can accomplish together."

An arrow whirred through the air and slammed into the ground at Shadow's feet. Shadow snapped back into focus and stared down the archer who shot the arrow. Several other archers trained their arrows on Shadow and Tails. Tails watched the archers take aim nervously, shifting closer to Shadow. Half of the arrow's shaft was buried into the ground. _Okay, _he thought, _they're a little better than I thought._

"So, are they're only the two of you?"

The weasel's voice was surprisingly loud and demanding for something so thin and dodgy. Shadow looked the weasel directly in his hazel eyes and gave a short nod. The weasel smirked in such a way that told Shadow he was not going to let him and the fox go anyways. Shadow frowned. These people were not going to be easily persuaded into trusting the traveling pair.

"Did you think you could raid this town just by yourselves?" The weasel said loudly, still smirking. "You must be dumb to try with odds like these."

"We're not going to raid you town!" Tails yelped back frightfully. "We don't even want to fight you! We just wanted to find a little water-"

"LIES! I know you people only say you want water, but then you'll take everything you can get you're hands on! We know nothing but trouble hides behind the walls of our city! We will not be overrun by your little gang of thugs!" The weasel raised his bat and pointed it at the two. The crowd rustled, ready to charge. "We end this _now_!"

The air was filled with angry shouts and flying arrows. Shadow and Tails dodged the arrows easily enough, now alert to the quiet, whirring missiles. The crowd had broken out into a stampeding mob, heading straight for the two. Shadow charged at them, sure the archers would not fire into the crowd. Tails, on the other hand, took to the sky, trying to plead over the shouting of the mob, trying to get them to listen, while dodging arrows.

"Please, you have to listen to me! We're not thugs! We didn't even know that there were people still living here! All we need is a little water then we'll leave! Please!"

"Tails! They won't listen to reason! Just forget it!" Shadow shouted at the kit, ignoring the surge of bodies against him and blocking their blows with easy. "Tails, get out of the air! Get down here!"

A piece of mud brick was thrown at the kit's spinning tails. The brittle brick was light and simple bounced off, but the force of the blow still stung. His tails stopped moving for a second and he dropped several feet. He managed to get his now sore tails to start spinning again before he fell into the angry mob and hovered a few feet above their heads. Tails gulped, staring down at the angry faces shouting up at him then snapped his head up when he heard a whir.

A stray arrow slammed into the boy's chest.

"TAILS!"

* * *

Tails: (O.O)

Shadow: ...What have you done woman!

Tails: Did I just...die?

Trinity: Maybe...

Shadow: You are not aloud to kill him! My only friend...Maria...(curls up all depressed like)

Trinity: I told you I'd get you back...

Tails: You left us at a cliffy! _A cliffy!_

Trinity: Quiet boy, or I'll have you suffer even more...

Tails: Review! I'm begging you, please review! _Do it for me!_


	9. Chapter 9

Trinity: (wailing) _I'm so sorry!_ I didn't mean to be so late! _Forgive me!_

Tails: Um...are you going to be okay?

Trinity: My fans! My poor, poor fans! My...(sniffle) _fans_. I'm so late...so very, very late... ___lament_ with me!

Shadow: ...Boo hoo?

Trinity: LAMENT I SAY! You should be crying over the death of Tails anyways.

Shadow: (Shrug) You aren't gonna kill him. He's important.

Trinity: ...damn you.

**I don't own Sega in all it's awsomeness!** LAMENT!

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**Chapter 9 – Flora City**

"TAILS!"

Shadow's exclamation went unheard by the angry mob. He watched, stunned, as Tails dropped into the mob yards away and out of his sight. Furious, the black hedgehog plowed through the sea of bodies, not caring who he stepped on. He found a small circle of men kicking and pounding on the kit. Blood speckled the men's fist and boots, and pooled slowly out onto the ground.

The ensuing roar issuing from Shadow's lips could have stopped time itself. The sound had startled everyone, even himself, and the crowd froze. All eyes were on him as the hedgehog stalked forward. All heard the low growl and all felt his black fury. Not even the group huddled around the kit could move when Shadow stood before them. Shadow grabbed one of them impatiently, a gerbil, and tossed him aside as if he was a wad of paper, the man screaming until he hit the ground with a thud. The rest of them came to their senses and scurried off, ducking back into the crowd.

Shadow's growl deepened. Tails was an absolute mess, lying unconscious on his side, the feathered end of an arrow in the air. Luckily, the arrow landed more into his shoulder than his chest, but the arrow head was buried completely in his flesh and he was bleeding profusely. Blood slid down his cheek from his mouth and various cuts. Lifting the hoodie, he could see bruises beginning to form all over his body from the beating he took.

His breath was shallow, but he was breathing. Shadow knelt down next to the kit, his hands hovering over him. He didn't want to move him, afraid he might hurt him if he did. When Shadow laid a hand on the kit's side, he jerked away and whimpered. Shadow pulled his fingers back and saw the bruise on his side, only one of his ribs weren't sitting quiet right. Shadow gritted his teeth and picked the kit up, careful not to jolt his injured shoulder or rib.

"Where's the oasis?" Shadow asked quietly. He was answered with a small tug on his pants.

The little mouse girl that Tails had frightened away was at Shadow's elbow. She turned and led Shadow through the throng of people. The crowd, still dazed, parted for them without a word. Somewhere behind him, the sounds of a woman wailing and shouting could be heard, but Shadow wasn't listening to her. All he wanted to do, all he could think about, was helping his little friend.

The mouse girl lead Shadow into what had to be the only intact building in the area. It was pentagon shaped building with only one floor with several nicks and gashes in the walls. Besides the grimy sunroof, the building had no windows, and instead had double doors on all five walls, which were all open at the time. Inside, the walls were covered in buckets of different sizes. Steps were carved into the ground to a raised mound that held a small pond of precious water with a covered well in the center.

Shadow laid Tails on one of the steps, using the boy's pack as a pillow, and grabbed a small bucket to scoop up some of the water. Taking off his own pack, Shadow pulled out a Medi-Kit. Gently, Shadow slid off the kit's hoodie and cleaned the blood off his bruised flesh, wrapped his wounded ribs. Because of the design of the arrow head, removing the arrow would be painful. Moving the arrow would ultimately cause more damage, and Shadow was left with finding the least painful way to remove it. But before Shadow could make a decision, Tails began to stir.

"Hey, kid. Don't move too much."

Tails stopped moving and laid still. He looked up at Shadow through one hazy eye. The dark hedgehog swam before the disorientated kit and he felt a sudden wave of sickness. He noticed a dull pain piercing the side of his chest each time he inhaled. Then, turning his head to the right, he saw the feathered arrow protruding from his shoulder.

"Ow," Tails said, looking at the arrow. Shadow chuckled.

"Oh, so you're just fine, right?" Shadow said.

"Nng. I guess," Tails frowned at the feathered tip of the arrow. "Are you gonna take this arrow out?"

"I'll have to. It's going to hurt."

Shadow decided to do this the quick way. Shadow sat Tails up a bit more, arranging it so nothing was behind his injured shoulder. Taking a firm hold on the shaft of the arrow, Shadow gritted his teeth and jammed the arrow out through the back of the kit's shoulder. Tails, who was zoning out, was jolted back into consciousness, letting out a shrill scream. He quickly bit down on his lip to shut himself up, squeezing his eyes shut. Tears still escaped from the corner of his eyes.

Shadow cut the shaft and slid the piece of wood out of Tails' shoulder, the arrow head falling to the ground. He quickly dressed the wound, blood staining the bandage in an instant. Tails didn't even notice his fangs cut into his lip and add to the amount of blood streaking down his fur. Ignoring Shadow's protests, the kit sat up, rubbing his tears off his checks. He glanced over his wounds, but was quickly distracted from the self-examination.

"Is this the oasis?" Tails asked curiously, peering into the crystal blue water.

"Yeah. The water's perfectly clean, too."

"It better be. If it's not, you've poisoned me," Tails said giving Shadow a side glance. The dark hedgehog sniggered. "Don't laugh! I could be…who are you?"

Shadow looked at the kit in alarm. Following his eyes, he noticed Tails was looking at someone over his shoulder. The little grey mouse girl was still standing in the doorway. She jumped when Tails spoke to her, wringing her filthy dress in her hands and avoiding eye contact. Tails and Shadow exchanged glances before watching the small girl take a few timid steps forward.

"Um…my name is…Annabel."

"Hello!" Tails said cheerfully, scrambling to his feet, "My name is Tails. And this grumpy looking guy is Shadow."

"I am not grumping looking," Shadow said, frowning at Tails. "I just don't smile a lot."

Tails and Annabel giggled at the look on his face. Then, the two of them stopped all at once, starting up casual conversation. Tails asked a million questions about life in the broken city and Annabel answered him cheerfully. Shadow was surprised how easily Tails forgot his pain in his curiosity. The kit was standing on his own two feet, talking a mile a minute, despite a cracked rib and wounded shoulder.

People were starting to crowd the doorways of the building. Shadow tensed instinctively, but they only peaked in from around the door frame. Shadow ignored them until one particular weasel dared to enter the shady building. The patches of light that managed to enter past the grimy window panes above made him seem even bonier than before. His yellow eyes glared at Shadow in suspicion.

"What do you want?" the weasel snapped, interrupting the happy chatter of the two children.

"Well, we simply wanted water before," Shadow said in his calmest voice. "But since my friend is injured," -the weasel flinched- "we'll need some lodging for a short while."

"He seems alright to me. Looks like his injuries don't bother him," The weasel snapped, glaring at the kit out of the corner of his eye. Tails lip twitch as he contemplated sticking his tongue out at the man.

"Yeah, he does seem fine. Kids these days," Shadow said off-handedly, glancing at the kit as well. "But I'd rather not take any risks. He shouldn't even be standing right now."

"Well, you can take the water. But we don't have any place for people like-"

"Of course we have a place for you!" interrupted a woman's voice. The weasel flinched.

A rather angry looking squirrel strolled in and planted herself firmly between Shadow and the weasel. She was brown, tawny, and rather fat, with a frying pan in her hand. She wore a filthy, gray apron over a not-so-filthy but extremely faded pink dress and stood with her fists on her large hips. Shadow recognized her as one of the women who ushered the children inside at the first sign of trouble.

"We have plenty of room for you and your friend to stay in," The woman said over her shoulder, glaring at the weasel. "You can stay as long as you like. _Isn't that right Harold?_"

"But Anna! These people are bandits! Why should we give board to them?" Harold the Weasel squealed back, his tone changed drastically from when he spoke to Shadow.

"Bandits? Ha! Boy!" Anna turned to Tails and he jumped. "Are you a bandit?"

"No ma'am," Tails said nervously.

"Is your friend here a bandit?"

"No ma'am!"

"Are you sure?" Anna said, pointing the pan at him. "Are you really sure you aren't a criminal of any kind?"

"Quiet positive!" Tails said, his voice running up. "I'm a good boy!"

"Good!" Anna turned back to Harold, "See? They aren't bandits."

"But Anna-"

"Be quiet Harold! You're in enough trouble as it is, so don't go digging your self a hole to lie down in! You show these two a good place to stay for the night! _I_ have dinner to prepare."

And with that, the real "man" in charged stalked away to leave one nervous weasel, two shocked children, and a whole crowd of sweat-dropping people. Shadow watched Anna walk away with growing respect for the woman while Tails struggled to get over his sudden nervousness. Annabel tugged on his finger to get his attention.

"That was mama," Annabel whispered to him.

"That's you mom?" Tails asked, astonished.

"No, not really, But she takes care of all of us. Even the big people."

"So she's the leader around here?"

"Yeah. She calls Mr. Harold a "big baby." Says his just playing chief."

"I heard that," Harold said, scowling. Annabel giggled. "Hurry up. I'll take you to your new room."

Harold slinked out of the building and up the street. After Anna left, everyone else dispersed and went there separate ways. Children ran up the streets toward Tails, crowding around him. His injuries and talk of him being a bandit made him an instant celebrity among the kids. Shadow had to pick him up and carry him after Harold, who was slinking away quickly.

Harold led them to a building that was just as dirty and broken as the others, this one blasted down to only one story. The plaster was coming off the walls and holes dotted the ceiling in some of the rooms. There were six rooms with a ceiling, each with two beds in them, as well as an entry room converted into a sitting/dinning room. The beds were old and creaky, but a welcome change from the ground the two had been sleeping on before. In the entry room were two couches and a few chairs that were loosing stuffing around a wooden, square table.

"Here," Harold said, thrusting a dusty lantern into Shadow's hands. "It's the only light in the whole house, so you'll have to carry it around if you leave your room at night. Annabel will come and get you when dinners ready."

And with that, the grumpy weasel slinked out of the house and out of sight. Shadow and Tails was left standing in the entry room, watching the disgruntled man walk away. Shadow went to the table and pulled a match out of his pack. He struck it on the table, lit the lantern and walked down the hall into the first roofed room.

"Bed. Now," Shadow said, hanging the lantern on a metal hook in the wall.

"Why? I feel fine." Tails whined. He was itching to go out with to play with the kids who idolized him.

"Don't push yourself. Get in bed now," Shadow snapped.

"I'm not _pushing_ myself. I honestly don't feel a thing."

"Doesn't matter. You're only okay because you're near my Chaos Emerald."

"You have a Chaos Emerald with you?"

"Yeah. The red one. Found it before I left 4 years ago and haven't let go of it since. But that doesn't matter. You're resting."

Tails groaned but obediently climbed into bed. Shadow tucked him in nice in tight so his wouldn't move too much. But Tails wasn't done with his questioning. Once Shadow had his back turned to him, he stubbornly sat up, using his pillow to prop himself up. Shadow, glared at him from across the room, but took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"What now," Shadow growled.

"I want to ask you a few questions."

"Shoot."

"Where did you go? For four years, where were you?"

"Believe it or not, I was in the same valley as you. There's a mountain, deep within that valley, were the river starts from. It's kind of a holy place, the reason why the valley was protected and spared from the destruction of the war."

"Holy?"

"Yes. It's where the people who believed in the legend lived. The place was kind of like a natural conductor of Chaos energy. It just flowed through the place. I trained on the highest peak, where the energy was the strongest."

"Sounds mystical. But once you descended…"

"A mortal body can't hold the power of gods, so I needed another restraint on my powers. If I use too much too fast, I'd kill myself."

"I thought you were immortal?"

"I have an unnaturally long life span, but I can be killed, therefore, I'm mortal."

"Okay, so what's up with me? Why don't I feel anything?"

"You're one of the Chaos beings. You're drawing energy from my Chaos Emerald to heal yourself quickly. I suspect you'll be completely healed in two days."

"I thought 'your' emerald was the green one."

"No, that's just the emerald I had when you first met me. Apparently, the green emerald is my lucky charm, 'cause it keeps coming back to me. I just happened to have the red emerald this time."

"Should we be looking for the emeralds too?"

"We can look for them at the same time, but I think we attract the emeralds to ourselves. I happen to know the white emerald is up on the mountain, so we can go back for it later."

"How many girls do you think are going to drool over you in those pants?" Tails asked casually, hoping to catch Shadow off guard. It didn't work.

"What the-!" Shadow sputtered. "What kind of question is that? I'm not answering!"

"I'm betting about 20. Maybe even 30!" Tails said, smirking.

"You're doing this because you think I won't hit you, aren't you?"

"You wouldn't attack an injured little boy, would you?" Tails said, looking innocent.

"Oh, I'll get you. _With interest,_" Shadow said, his eyes narrowing.**

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Shadow: Heh heh heh heh...

Tails: The bad man scares me! Help!

Trinity: Well, I feel _so_ much more better now.

Shadow: Fans.

Trinity: _NOOOO!_ I_'m A t_eRi_bIle_ PeR_sOn_!

Tails: She'll shut up if you review her.


	10. Chapter 10

Trinity: I'm surprised how many people were worried I was going to kill Tails.

Shadow: Yeah, there's alot of people who love the little guy.

Tails: I'm wuved!

Shadow: (smirk) Not as much as I am!

Tails: (growls)

Trinity: I was refering to the fact that they thought he could die. He's practiclly a demi-god. He ain't going anywhere!

It with dismay that I say,** Sega and co. are not mine in any way.**

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**Chapter 10- Attack on Flora City**

During their first 2 days in Flora City, Shadow and Tails continued to feel some hostility from Harold and other adults. However, after spending time with them at the great get together commonly called "dinner" (the kids called it food fight time), they became part of the family. Tails fit in with younger kids and teens with ease, and he ran around with their packs in the streets when ever Shadow wasn't looking. Shadow, being the loner he is, usually just walked through the town alone, but he never passed up a change to sit and talk with some of the older residents.

"All these young girls around here can't help with the cooking," Annabel would grumble when she took a break from the kitchen. She would stand in front her house, getting fresh air and watching the dirty kids run around. Tails was only just distinguishable by the flash of white bandages in the crowd of bodies that ran jumped and tackled each other. When Shadow walked by, she'd beckon him over and they'd have a little chat.

"Speaking of young girls," she started one day, "who you trying to pick up with that outfit."

"Nobody ma'am. These are the only clothes I have and they were given to me by a group of village girls."

"Oh, well that explains everything," Annabel said with a chuckle. "I really didn't notice how many young girls there are around here until you showed up with your tight pants and little ear ring. They're all over the place now, watching you from every window and corner."

"So I've noticed," Shadow said, shifting uncomfortably. There was a crowd of them at a window of a building across the street that Shadow imagined had the best angle. "Why haven't those girls been put to work?"

"Supposedly, they're all babysitting or watching over the kids."

And then, some other older women would come from the kitchens, or a face would disappear from the window and they would come from the nursery. Every once and a while, an old man with a walking stick would come by during the morning breaks and they'd all lounge around talking about anything and everything. When the pack dispersed and feel apart and Tails tumbled out of the pile of kids giggling like mad, everyone went back to work. It was an hour between the falling apart of the mass of bodies and dinner, so people would retreat to their bedrooms during that hour of twilight.

And so it was for at least two weeks. By that time, the flash of white bandages disappeared from the crowd of children, and Shadow would send one less worried glance into the mass of bodies. Tails even played during the heat of high noon, jumping on the older kids' backs and had them carrying him around everywhere. When the sun sank behind the buildings and the sky turned orange, Tails would skip and jump and walk backwards, talking the entire way to their little "apartment."

_For once, the kid is actually being a kid._ Shadow thought as Tails babbled on about Timmy doing this and how Johnny could do that.

It was during their third week in the town when they turned the corner to find a young man waiting for them at the front door. He was a black rat, wearing the same worn, ripped, dirty attire that was the norm in this town. He sat on the front steps with his forehead resting on his knees, tracing a pattern in the dirt with his fingers. The rat looked up at them with deep brown eyes when he noticed Shadow and Tails coming down the street and rose to his feet.

Shadow gave the rat a nod and he nodded back, stepping out of the doorway. Tails rushed into the house first, feeling the need to tidy up for the guest. Shadow held the door open for the rat, and the teen went in next, taking a seat in one of the chairs. Shadow let the door slam shut behind him, sitting across from the rat. For the first time, Shadow noticed how worse for wear he looked. A scar ran from under his left eye down to his jaw and above his eyebrow to his mangled ear. He looked like he was just starting to recover from a sickness and was very thin underneath his clothes.

"My name is Jake," the rat said in a solemn voice. "I'm Annabel's brother, and I've come here to thank you."

"You're her bother?" Tails said as he entered the room. He stretched out on the couch, lying on his side. "I didn't know she had one."

"Yes. Annabel doesn't like to talk about me much to strangers. I'm the only family she has left."

"Oh, I didn't know," Tails said, looking away.

"What did you want to thank us for?" Shadow asked, wondering what good deed they might have done.

"For saving Annabel, though I don't think she realized she was in any danger. And for being her friend," Jake said, nodding to Tails. "She's so timid most of the time, she's usually ignored by the other kids."

"But she's so nice! I bet she'd bake everyone cookies if she was older, 'cause she's so sweet."

"What did you mean when you said we saved Annabel?" Shadow asked, interrupting Tails' ramblings.

"You see, a year ago, there was never any talk of bandits. We were pretty sure we were the only establishment of living people for miles around." Jake said. He suddenly frowned, thinking about the past. "But then sands started blowing in from the deserts. After sitting through our first sandstorm, the adults started getting nervous, and whispered to each other about the dangerous outside world. The closer the desert came, the more nervous everyone was.

"I'm not sure, but some sign of the outside world must have blown in with the storm and warned the adults of bandits outside our walls. The ruins around the center of our town are our only protection between us and desert, and that worries some of us. So naturally, when Annabel started wandering out of sight, I started to worry as well. I had no idea she was going to the ruins. But you gave her such a scare, that I don't think she'll be wandering back out there again."

"I'm not sure if there are any bandits out there," Shadow said, "We've been walking through the desert for days, but we haven't seen any sign of other living people. How could they survive?"

"They same way you have, on limited provisions," Jake said. "However, they would rather steal their supplies from others, instead of finding a place to get them legally."

"People have forgotten the laws without any authority to back it up. Only those who live in isolated towns like this one live peacefully," Tails said gloomily. "Its gotten to the point where everyone started to call it the 'Old Ways', as if we'll never go back to being a civilized nation."

The three sat in silence. Golden rays of sunset streamed into the windows slanted, broken by the tops of surrounding buildings. Tails sat up, swinging his legs back and forth, watching the speckles of dust that could be scene floating in the light. Jake sat slumped in his chair, looking gloomy, unaware he was under inspection. Shadow watched the black rat with interest, the side of his fist pressed against his mouth.

It was a while before they took notice of commotion steadily growing louder outside. A shrill scream brought the three out of their individual thoughts. Shadow was on his feet in an instant, throwing open the door and looking down the street in alarm. The sound of shouting and panic were much clearer now, coming from the center of town. Tails and Jake joined Shadow, standing in the entry hall.

"It seems the fear of bandits was not unfounded," Shadow growled.

Jake pushed passed Shadow, jogging down the street. Shadow and Tails paused, then went after him. The three moved quickly but quietly down the street, looking this way and that for anyone who had gotten that far into the city. However, for three blocks, they didn't see another soul, and they didn't seem any closer to the cries and shouts of battle.

There was a scream again, closer than before.

"ANNABEL!"

Jake streaked down the street, recognizing his little sitter's voice. Tails and Shadow exchanged glances before running after the distraught rat. Jake skidded to a halt at the corner, peaking around it cautiously. An arrow streaked passed his pointed nose, followed by a roar of laughter. Stumbling back, Jake clutched his bleeding nose and pressed his back against the wall.

"Come on out boy! Annabel wants to talk to ya!" A voice called mockingly. He heard a small squeak and a muffled "brother" from the small mouse girl.

"Let my sister go!" Jake called back.

Only a roar of laughter answered him, mocking him. He felt a pat on his shoulder and watched amazed as Shadow strolled coolly past him and around the corner. Jake looked at Tails, and the kid just gave him a reassure smile. Grinning, Tails grabbed Jake's arms, and started to carry him up to the top of the building. With all eyes on the bold hedgehog, none of the bandits ever noticed the two taking position on the roof.

Shadow stood in the middle of the street, undaunted by the number of bandits. At least thirty bandits stood crowded in the other side of the street, standing on rubble or crouched like sprinters. Many had knifes or sabers in their hands. Most had bows, arrows trained on Shadow with deadly accuracy.

Shadow glared at Annabel's captors from under his eyebrows. Five bandits crowded around her, one holding a knife at her throat and a hand over her mouth. Annabel's teary eyes begged Shadow for help. The snickering bandits dared Shadow to try to take them all on. More bandits appeared in the windows, armed with longbows, oblivious to the two just above their heads.

The chuckle of their leader, a fat bore dressed up in lavish robes, dredged up bad memories for Shadow and Tails alike.

"You dare to challenge us, the Desert Pirates? Aren't you a stupid one."

"The true fool is the one who underestimates me," Shadow said calmly.

Shadow didn't even bother to drop into a fighting stance. He could tell these people had never been in a true fight, feeling strength only in numbers. The leader, feeling Shadow was trying to taunt him, stepped forward, blowing hot air out of his nostrils. _Pitiful_, Shadow thought with disgust. _Cowards, every one of them_.

Shadow was standing in front of the boar in a blink of an eye. Astonished by his speed, the fat man squealed and stumbled backwards. On cue, the archers in the windows let loose their arrows, which the black hedgehog dodged with ease. In an instant, Shadow was next to the man who dared to hold a knife to Annabel's throat, snapping his neck.

Shadow grabbed the mouse girl and he weaved through the arrows back down the street. He put the disorientated child on her own two feet around the corner, safe from the whirring missiles. Tails left Jake up high and landed at Annabel's side quietly. Without a word, Tails grabbed her and lifted her up to the roof, handing her over to her brother. Jake embraced his sister and Annabel whimpered into his chest.

"Stop shooting! Don't waste your arrows on a coward who won't show himself!"

Seeing Annabel safe in her brother's arms, Shadow appeared at the corner with renewed loathing in his eyes. Red eyes burned in the minds of the bandits and several declared him a demon on the spot. With a start, they noticed Tails standing at his shoulder with eyes of ice. The two walked into the middle of the street, and stood waiting side by side, Tails with his hands in his pockets and Shadow with his arms crossed over his chest.

Impending doom was the only phrase to describe the feeling sweeping through the crowd.

"I'm sorry," Shadow said in a deadly soft voice, "But did you just refer to _me_ as a coward? I believe you are sorely mistaken."

Blood hit the ground before he even finished his sentence. Tails had launched himself into the air and came down on in the middle of the crowd, clamping his jaws down on one poor man's neck. The commotion in the middle distracted the bandits and gave Shadow a chance to attack. Using just his two fingers of his right hand, he moved through the crowd, slicing jugulars and piercing hearts with his wicked claws.

Tails was ripping bandits apart left and right. Blood covered his hands and muzzle as he dodged arrows, jumping off walls and using the bandits as shields. Without any weapons, he fought with tooth and claw and pure rage. Fury at the bandits for pulling such an underhand trick gave him power, but the knowledge of Annabel and Jake hiding so close kept him in check, even though the taste of blood was maddening.

Shadow on the other hand, killed his opponents with subtle movements. Only his right hand was slick with blood; the other was held behind his back. His speed gave him the advantage of surprise, and most of the bandits had collapsed before he plunged his claws into their throats. Shadow ignored most of the arrows nicking his body, but any arrow with a true aim was caught between those same two fingers and thrown back to the shooter.

By the time the street was cleared of bandits, the number of bloodied bodies littering the ground was over thirty. Several bodies lay detached from the group, with arrows Shadow had thrown in their backs. The bodies of archers hung from windows, blood dripping from the arrows in their chests or heads. Shadow stood in the middle of the carnage, clean left hand behind his back, and the bloodied right hand hanging at his side. Tails sat on a piece of rubble, splattered in blood, staring at the bodies at his feet.

Jake stared at the two of them, a foreign feeling overtaking him. Annabel buried her face in his chest, whimpering and crying. Jake squeezed her closer, but she had already seen too much. The sight of her friend turning into a demon was too much. The scent of blood and death floated up to them and the eerie sound of a drop of blood from Shadow's finger tips dropping into the puddle below filled the air.

Shadow looked up at the black rat. He walked toward him, then, picking up speed, ran up the side of the building, shooting over the top and landing crouched next to the young man. Annabel squeaked, and hid behind her brother. Jake matched Shadow's stare with a steady look of his own. The browns of earth met the pools of blood calmly.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Shadow said, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"About what?"

"About the Desert Pirates."

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Trinity: Mwah ha ha ha! Return of the evil ones!

Tails: Yay! I'm evil!

Shadow: Yay! There is blood!

Jake: Yay! I'm here!

Annabel: Yay! Plot device!

Trinity: (O.o) ...Plot device?

Shadow: We beg for reviews!

Jake: (Begging motions) Please! Please give us reviews!


	11. Chapter 11

Trinity: ...not enough blood...(sigh)

Shadow: They want more blood? ...Why can't you have normal fans?

Trinity: Acctully, when I re-read it, I agreed with him. But too much blood and Tails would have went psycho and killed _everybody..._

Jake: Where is that kid, anyways?

Trinity: In the white room. He needs to calm down...

Shadow: (snort) Good luck witht that!

**You know that I know that I don't own anything! **

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**Chapter 11- The Desert Pirates**

"I think you owe us an explanation." Shadow said, standing over Jake. "I want to know what you relation is with the Desert Pirates."

"What makes you think I'm connected to them?" Jake said in an offhand tone.

"I noticed that they all had a tattoo on their face. One that looked similar to that scar of yours."

Jake looked away. Tails was hovering just over the edge of the building, however, he didn't land on the roof, nervous about getting closer to Annabel. His eyes were still icy and cold, and he stared at Jake with the same intensity as Shadow. The two demons were staring Jake down, determined for an answer. Annabel whimpered into her brother's shirt, murmuring incoherent warnings to him. Jake glanced down at his sister, then up at the dark blue sky.

Mumbling something about bed, Jake picked Annabel up and cradled her in his arms. The quivering child gave Shadow a frightful look, then buried his face into her brother's chest again, her arms wrapped around his neck. Jake leaped into a hole in the roof down on to the floor below and walked out the building. Shadow leaped off the roof and Tails hovered after them. As Jake walked toward the house the two were staying in, Shadow and Tails followed at a safe distance. Jake kicked open the door, walked down a hall, and put Annabel into a bed in one of the spare rooms. He then shut the door, went down the hall, and found Shadow and Tails in the sitting room waiting for him.

"Take a seat," Shadow said, sitting in the same chair he sat in before.

Jake took the chair as far as possible from Shadow, but there was no escaping their callous eyes. Tails sat on the table with his legs stretched out before him, hunched slightly, and watching Jake closely. And no matter where he sat, Jake was close enough to smell the blood that soaked the kit's fur. Jake took a shaky breath and closed his eyes, willing his heart to slow its beat. He opened his eyes at looked at Shadow.

"What do you want to know?" Jake asked in his gloomy voice.

"Everything. Starting with those bandits."

"The Desert Pirates was a group of kids who started wondering these lands after the war started, just trying to survive. I joined up with them after the attack on this city, back when I was just a kid myself. I was buried out there in the ruins, your see. Trapped for days without food, water, or even sunlight. When they found me, we thought I was the only one who survived the attack on Flora City. We didn't know the water well was intact, or that there were other survivors, other adults digging their way out of the ruins. We didn't know a thing, so we went into the desert.

"Living in the desert was tough, and we had no skills to work in the cities that still stood. We were forced to steal from other travelers just to get by. As we went, we picked up more and more kids, and we became a real gang. I was sorta revered, seen as a true survivor of the war since I was the only one who had actually been trapped under ruins, the last of my family. I was believed to be strong, and pretty darn lucky, and they made me their leader. The scar I received when the city walls fell on me was more than a gang sign- it was our symbol of hope.

"We were organized in ranks of power. There was me, as the leader, five others in second command, and others who would collect followers, egger to fill the position of commander if any one of them were to be captured. That boar you attacked and killed today was once a particular powerful candidate in our group. He was a very violent person, very savage, and many of our new comers shared his views. While we only stole what was needed to survive, he always wanted more- valuables, money, and as he got older, women. I was the only one who could keep him in line, but he was getting harder to control.

"Then one day…he attacked me. He challenged me, told me I wasn't fit to be leader anymore, and claimed I was too soft. So we fought, and I beat him. But he wasn't known for fair fights, and he had informed some bounty hunters in the area of our duel. I had a big bounty on my head at the time, so they jumped at the chance to catch me. They waited until Bubba wore me down, then ten or fifteen of them surrounded me. I just barely escaped, and I wandered around the desert until my wounds took their toll."

"That was a year ago, and as I was lying unconscious, I got caught up in a sandstorm. I was the one who got blown in, I was that warning of bandits. They found me at the edge of this housing district, recognized me, but noticed how ruffed up I was. When I woke up to find myself back home, I thought I was dead. Especially when I saw Annabel. I couldn't believe that she, or anyone else, survived the attack. You can't imagine the relief and happiness I felt.

"But I felt guilty, too. To this day, I have never told them about the fact that I myself was a bandit. That life was behind me, and I never dreamed it would come back to haunt me. Nobody, save Harold, suspected me, they all believed I was just a victim. Harold, on the other hand, remembered me as a trouble maker who used to hassle him a lot. I know he'll pin this on me some how…"

"Ain't that the truth."

Jake's head snapped up, and looked into the muzzle of a rifle. Harold stood in the door way with the gun cocked and pointed the three sitting in the room. The weasel was staring grimly at them, eyes lingering on the blood covered kit. Tails stared back at him over his shoulder, head tilted back slightly.

"Get out here. Now," The weasel hissed. Shadow and Tails complied, but Jake hesitated. Annabel was still sleeping inside one of these rooms. "MOVE IT, RAT!"

Jake scowled at Harold. Moving slowly, Jake got to his feet and followed Shadow and Tails to the door. He was surprised to see half the town standing in the street, weapons and torches in their hands. They all had small wounds, but nothing serious. Anna had a frying pan in each hand, and a small cut across her forehead. Harold was ruffled as well, with a minor arrow wound on his shoulder and what looked like claw marks on his chest.

The crowd was alight with nervousness and whispers moved through them like an angry wind. Jake spotted a couple of wounded bandits tied up and sitting on the ground at their guard's feet. The image of the carnage that was left behind in the street flashed through his mind. All these people would have to walk through it to get here and the blood on Shadow and Tails confirmed their suspicions.

"Not bandits, eh?" Harold sneered. Anna gave Shadow a solemn look.

"No, we aren't bandits," Shadow said softly, looking into the woman's eyes. She wanted to believe he hadn't killed all those people.

"If that was the truth, then who led these guys in here?" Harold snapped. Shadow tore his eyes away from her.

"If we were bandits, why would we have killed them all?" Shadow said. Harold grimaced. This weasel was getting on Shadow's last nerves with his silly accusations.

"Who knows? You bandits are nothing but thieves and murderers," Harold whispered just loud enough for the three to hear him.

Shadow felt Jake twitch beside him. His bald tail was whipping impatiently against the door frame. Tails' eyes narrowed, and he glared at the weasel. Harold had touched a nerve in Jake and Tails was sympathizing with him. A low growl started up in the kit's throat and Shadow placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him. It wouldn't do them any good if the boy lost his temper and killed the weasel.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Tails shouted at the weasel, shrugging off Shadow's hand and taking an angry step toward him. "How could've the bandits followed us here if we've been here for over two weeks?"

A shouting match erupted between the kit and the weasel. Neither took notice of Shadow when he turned and slipped back into the house. Jake watched him go with curiosity, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise when he returned with his little sister, fighting against the grip on her shoulder. Annabel looked up at her brother with her big brown eyes then glanced around the crowd just outside the door. Jake looked confusedly between Shadow and his little sister, who was started to fidget nervously.

"Who else could have led them? Only the three of you are outsiders!"

"Jake has been here for a year! Why would he lead danger to his sister! They were holding her as a hostage you know!"

"Speaking of," Shadow interrupted loudly, "How did you end up in those bandits' hands, Annabel?"

Annabel flinched at the pointed tone he asked the question. Jake's deepening confusion was evident on his features. Tails, who had taken several steps towards Harold, looked over his shoulder, understanding dawning in his mind. Anna looked like she was ready to burst out laughing at the bad joke, and Harold fumed silently. The weasel refused to believe the three "outsiders" were innocent.

"I didn't mean too!" The mouse squealed at the top of her lungs. "I didn't know the bad people were trying to get in! I thought it was okay to go out into the ruins!"

"Annabel," Jake said breathlessly. "Why did you go out there? What are you doing?"

"I was looking for Mommy and Daddy." Annabel sniffed a little. "Even if they're" -she struggled to say the word- "dead...they're still out there. I wanna find them. I wanna say good-bye…"

"They're not there," Jake said softly, shaking his head.

"What do you mean? They have to be!" The little girl was on the verge of tears. Her eyes glistened in the soft light of the moon and several torches.

"No. When they found me, after the attack, they found Father with me. Later, we found Mother. We took them, and buried them near the cathedral." Jake looked at his precious little sister. "I was distraught when I couldn't find you, give you a decent burial. But I'm glad I didn't have to."

Annabel sniffled again then wiped her face on her dress. Shadow let her slip from his grasp when she jumped on her brother and gave his leg a bone crushing hug. Jake feigned injury for her amusement and they giggled at they're old game. Tails watched the two with a smile on his face. Shadow was glad to see Tails' eyes back to being clear blue when he glanced at him.

Harold cocked his gun.

"What are you doing?" Anna yelled, advancing on him.

"Be quiet woman! Someone's got to do it!" The weasel snapped over his shoulder. He glared at Shadow, Tails, and Jake over his rifle. When he spoke, his voice quivered with anger. "Get out. The three of you. Leave this town, and never return."

* * *

Shadow: What the-!

Trinity: (smile) Harold is _so_ nice.

Jake: Nice? He's not nice! He's gonna _shoot_ us!

Trinity: (evil cackle)

Shadow: Are we gonna kill him?

Trintiy: Nah.

Jake: Am I'm important now?

Trinity: Who knows...

Shadow: Are there gonna be a bunch of invented characters in this?

Trinity: Maybe!

Shadow: ...

Jake: ...

Tails: (growling in background)

Trintiy: Quiet you!


	12. Chapter 12

Trinity: I'm back. Sorry for such a late update. Went out of town.

Shadow: And couldn't find a computer?

Trintiy: Not a single one. (sigh) Forgive me?

Jake: I don't see why they shouldn't. You're still pretty prompt compared to some other authors...

Trintiy: How true...Anyways, go back to the desert, guys! You have a show to do!

Tails: Heat...I hate heat...

**I own nothing!** Isn't that a big surprise?

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 12 – Reunion with the Pack**

The cruel sun hung high in the midday sky, torching those forced to walk underneath it. Shadow trotted through the heat of the desert, staring straight ahead into the mirages dancing on the sand in the distance. Yellow Gas swirled around his ankles and parted for his falling feet. Tails walked directly behind him with his chin buried in his chest and eyes closed. The suns rays fell on top of his head and he groaned a little, urging himself on, despite the heat.

Jake walked behind the two, reminiscing.

It has been two weeks since the three were driven out of Flora City by Harold. Jake and Shadow had to restrain Tails from ripping his throat out. Annabel ran up to the weasel and beat him with her tiny fist, begging him to change his mind. The gun shot that echoed down the street shocked them into silence. He ignored everyone else and told them to leave again.

Jake didn't fight it and left without another word. He had actually been looking for an excuse to leave. He told Shadow and Tails that if staying in the city would bring them nothing but danger, then he would gladly leave. It was obvious the Desert Pirates need his leadership anyways.

Shadow, on the other hand, had to drag the fox boy down the street and forced him to march out of the town. Annabel ran screaming and begging after them. Jake let her follow him to the edge of the city, where he showed her where he buried their parents. But a layer of Yellow Gas covered their graves and Jake refused to let her come with them.

"It's too dangerous for a little girl," Jake said sternly.

Harold, who was following them with his riffle over his shoulder, took the girl gently by her hand. Jake and Harold stared at each other for awhile before Jake turned his back on his home for a second time and left Flora City. Harold watched them walk away, and only when they were nothing more than dots on the horizon did he lead the wailing girl away.

However, Jake was starting to feel the consequences. It was a lot easier to leave the town years ago, when he thought everyone was dead. Now, all he could think about was the tear stained face of his crying sister. _Now, she truly is alone. She knows I'm alive, but she will never see me again._ Jake watched his feet rise and fall gloomily. _Am I allowed no happiness?_

Jake's head snapped up immediately as they passed a lone rock that was oddly cylinder in shape. He recognized the landmark and jogged to take a place next to Shadow. The dark hedgehog, wrapped in his traveling cloak again, came out of his trance and glanced over to Jake. Jake gave him a look and Shadow let him take the lead. He knew his way around this part of the desert after all.

Tails, now in the rear, lifted his head as well and looked around curiously. There was a certain spark of life that accompanied a city that he knew all to well. He could smell a waft of smoke in the air, and he could hear, or perhaps _feel_, the laughter of children. The line picked up the pace, desperate to get out of the sun. Soon the three were standing at the edge of a giant ravine and Tails jaw dropped.

In the middle of the ravine, there was a plateau that rose higher than the bottom of the valley. On the highland was a huge town whose walls stood at the very edge of the plateau. The Yellow Gas streamed over the side of the cliff like a waterfall, disappearing into the deep, dark valley far below. A little to their left was a stone arch that had been reinforced with metal beams. The three quickly went over the bridge, thankful for the possible rest from the terrible sun. They soon stood in the tall, arched entryway to the plateau city.

"Welcome to Callor," Jake murmured to the other two, grinning at the awed look on the kit's face.

Callor was huge. Only a year old, it rose from the ashes of the defeated and destroyed Callor Military Base. Because if was such a perfect spot- easy to defend, free from Yellow Gas, and an optimal trading post- the city grew and expanded at an explosive rate. From the arch under which the group stood under, a wide road lead straight to and all the way around the marketplace at the center of the city. The marketplace, which could be seen from the entry, was a bustling place filled with men and women trading, shouting deals to each other and trying to keep their children out of mischief.

Jake led Shadow and Tails toward the market place, staying close to the shadows of the large and neatly spaced houses. He abruptly turned down a side road, veering off toward the outskirts of the city. Perplexed, Shadow and Tails followed him. The small road became rough, bumpy, then little more than a well traveled dirt path. The houses were crowded together here, unkempt and moldy. There was no laughter here, just shady figures that walked past them quickly, skirting the other side of the narrow road.

"Where are you taking us?" Shadow asked quietly, eyeing an unusual old man who sat in a creaking rocking chair on his front porch. He had a pipe in his mouth that had burnt out awhile ago, and for some reason had a hood pulled over his head so you couldn't see him in the shady ally.

Jake shushed Shadow and quickened his pace. The old man's face followed them as they hurried down the street, his chair creaking eerily. Jake lead Shadow and Tails around a corner, down a twisting, buckling lane, up some stairs, over a low wall, and stopped infront of a pair of buildings standing so close together they almost touched. The one on the right was a three story building, and according to the signs next to the door, was a hospital on the first floor, with several offices from rent of the second and third floors. On the left was a series of connected stores, each two floors.

Jake looked up and down the lane, then up at the windows of the businesses. With no one in sight, Jake squeezed into the space between the buildings. Tails, glancing around at Shadow, followed quickly. The black hedgehog trailed them, after one final check up and down the street. Shuffling between the buildings until they reached the back, they came to a building almost touching the hospital and offices. Hidden in the tiny space between the three buildings was a staircase heading down underneath them.

The three climbed their way down underneath the unkempt buildings and deep into the plateau itself. The stairs leveled out into a carved tunnel. The light that shone down from the staircase lit only a small area of the tunnel, leaving the rest so dark that even Shadow's eyes had a hard time adjusting to the gloom. Tails peered uneasily down the tunnel, which extended both directions from base of the stairs.

"Are we gonna walk down there without any light?" Tails asked.

"Just wait," Jake said calmly. He sat on the stairs and rested his forehead on his folded hands.

They did wait. Tails had just stared pacing up and down the pool of light when Shadow caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Down the tunnel to his left came a figure, walking down the stone passageway. He stopped just out of Jake's and Tails range of sight. Shadow alerted his comrades to the figures presence, staring pointedly at the person's outline. The figure chuckled and a faint click echoed down the tunnel.

"Why does everyone have guns?" Tails muttered darkly.

"Identify yourselves," demanded a female voice.

"Lillian, it's me," Jake said softly. The women gasped.

"…Jake?"

"Yeah," The rat raised his head and turned his face toward the woman, the light from above illuminated his face. She gasped again.

"I thought…no, you're dead!"

"Nice to see you too," Jake said dryly. He rose to his feet and Shadow saw the silhouette jerk its gun toward him.

"Don't you move! It's a trick…it's gotta be…"

"Well now," Jake said in dark amusement, "you're not going to shoot me are you? If you kill me and I really do turn out to be Jake, you'll be in deep shit for killing your leader. What are you going to do? I know the way in, so you can't just let us walk away."

"You're Jake alright," the woman said in voice that suggested she was grinning. "I'll bring you in just in case. March! And don't try anything funny."

Shadow, Tails and Jake filed pasted the gunwoman, and she followed on their heels. They stumbled down the dark tunnel, stopping in front of a very big, very heavy, wooden door. The woman Jake called Lillian knocked twice not on the door, but on a hallow area in the stone wall. A series of clinks and clicks and the large door swung into a large, circular room with a dome ceiling. It was lit only by a few flickering torches on the walls and a candle chandelier swinging above them.

"I brought our 'visitors,'" Lillian said. She stepped into the light spilling out of the door way, and Shadow and Tails saw their capture at last. She was a pure white cat with slanted green eyes. She wore something like a cloth tunic over a loose fitting pair of pants and a nice pair of boots. The thick leather belt around her waist supported two gun holsters and a strap of leather wrapped around her thigh held a sheathed dagger.

"One of our 'visitors' looks rather familiar."

Shadow looked around room, surveying their current hosts. The one who spoke was a lizard who leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, and seemed to be the oldest in the room. Many calves, pups, kits, and cubs sat scattered through the room. A pair of bat twins, both boys, hung from the chandelier, looking down at the three guests. They all wore worn cloth clothing, loose fitting and comfortable, and all had the tattoo of Jake's scar across their faces. Only the oldest –the lizard, the cat, and a bull sitting in a chair- seemed to recognize Jake.

"I though you were dead," the broad-chest bull huffed, glaring at Jake through one open eye. He looked like he just woke up from a nap.

"You all really don't have a lot of faith in me, do you?" Jake said dully. He strolled into the room and stood just under the chandelier. The young ones started to stir and whispered to themselves. Jake simply frowned, looking around the room.

"Faith? How did you think we'd react after you disappear, then just stroll right in here after a year?" the lizard commented sleepily. He heaved a sigh and lifted his head to fully regard Jake. "Anyways, welcome back, boss."

"Welcome back? Welcome back!" Lillian screeched. "After being gone for a year?"

"I'm just saying hi, gees. Calm down Lillian. It's not like I bowed to him and proclaimed him my eternal master."

"You don't expect us to start taking orders from _him_ anymore after what happened, do you? After all the hardship we had to endure on our own in his absences!" The cat whirled on Jake, the rat matching her stare unflinchingly. "You just stroll right in here like nothing's new. Do you really intend to take power back from the Five?"

"Well, I didn't think it would be that easy, but I _will_ bring order back into this group. I don't like what I saw in town," Jake's eyes drifted to the youngsters crowded into the room. "We're drifting apart."

"That's what happened when kids grow up. They grow distant from their friends and split apart," The bull said. He stretched his hands to the ceiling and stood to his full height of 6 feet 6 inches. "But you're one to talk. Where were you?"

"Flora," Jake said simply. Shadow and Tails, who had been ignored thus far, shifted slightly. They weren't sure their part of this story should be told.

"Flora? Flora City? What for?" the lizard asked. They had his full attention now, and even the cat was listening, though she pretended not to.

"There were survivors, Jet. Annabel…she's alive."

"Your sister? In that case, I understand why you left, but why didn't you stay with her?"

"I'm a trouble maker, no matter where I am. Circumstances drove me and my friends out of Flora City."

The lizard looked Tails, then Shadow, up and down. His eyes lingered on Shadow for a moment, before he looked back to Jake. Lillian and the bull eyed Shadow a bit as well. The youngsters, genuinely confused, didn't understand what those looks meant.

"Your friends don't look like they'd belong here," The bull said. "Why did you bring them?"

"I might have been presumed dead for a year, but my poster is still up in town. I couldn't risk leading them anywhere but here."

"And what kind of trouble did they get you into that drove you apart from your sister?"

"They didn't do anything. Bubba showed up."

"That coward is still alive?" Lillian hissed angrily.

"Not anymore."

* * *

Shadow: Gasp! The truth! 

Tails: We said...nothing...the whole time.

Shadow: (shrug) We'll talk a lot next time.

Trinity: How do you know?

Shadow: We're going to talk our way into the Desert Pirates trusting us.

Trinity: ...damn...

Jake: Don't forget, you have to explain the Five.

Trinity: Hush!

Annabel: (holding a **VOTE FOR TCNK** sign) Tee hee!


	13. Chapter 13

Trinity: Okay, I'm back. Did you miss me?

Tails: (muttering)Where's _our_ turkey diner?

Trinity: Um, did you check the oven?

Tails: ...no.

Trinity: It's burnt by now. Oh well. You can have some of my leftovers.

Tails: TURKEY! (leaps for fridge)

Jake: Someone likes his turkey a bit too much...

Shadow: Happy Thanksgiving and happy stuff like that. (walks off)

**I still don't own anything of Sonic the Hedgehog.** What a surprise.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 13 – Trouble in Town**

All eyes were on Tails. The cat, the bull, and the lizard were put on guard when the kit whispered those words. The kit was trying to fight back the anger that was crawling into his chest at the sound of that boar's name. Shadow stood quietly behind the kit, his own anger hidden behind a blank face.

"What do you mean by 'not anymore'?" The lizards said. His hands dropped to his sides, and Shadow figured he had knifes hidden on him.

"Let's go," Shadow said softly. "We're not welcome here."

"I mean he's dead," Tails said, ignoring Shadow's warning. Shadow grimaced as the group bristled at Tails' harsh tone.

"So Jake was kicked out of town because you two are murderers?"

"No!" Jake snapped. "No, it was because bandits showed up in town and they thought I had something to do with it. They didn't even mention it…"

"They were probably too scared to! I know I wouldn't remind a bunch of murderers that they could off me," Lillian hissed. She gripped the hilt of her pistol as Tails opened his mouth to shout back.

"Tails," Shadow said warningly. The kit snapped his jaws close with a click.

"Lillian, take your hand off your guns," Jake said softly, staring icily at the cat, before turning his gaze to the lizard and bull. "Jet, Sledge, stand down. You have no reason to turn on these two."

Lillian hissed angrily, but she let go of her pistols. Jet's fingers stopped itching for his knives and Sledge's for the handle of his war ax on the table top. Shadow still eyed the white cat, whom obviously believed she had every right to turn on Shadow and Tails. Jake, his authority once again recognized, earned the attention of the younger crowd as the undoubted leader.

"You aren't a match for these two. Leave them be," Jake said solemnly.

"Why do you trust them so much?" Lillian said. "It's not like you to harbor hardcore criminals."

"They aren't 'hardcore,' just really strong. This one simply likes to fight," Jake said, jutting his thumb toward Shadow. "But that's not the point. You have to hear the whole story to understand."

"I still don't what those two here."

"Fine," Jake sighed. "Will you two kindly leave so we may conduct business? It's hard for Lillian to concentrate when there's a 'threat' in the area."

"Scary-de cat," Tails murmured as he turned towards the door.

Lillian hissed angrily at the kit. Tails stuck his tongue out at her, and Shadow grabbed Tails' elbow. Shadow steered Tails out the door while Jet and Sledge held Lillian back. Jake watched the two of them disappear through the wooden doors and back out into the pitch black tunnel with mild amusement. Shadow marched Tails down the tunnel to the staircase that sat in a pool of light.

Tails went up first, stomping up the stairs in his fury. Shadow paused with his hand on the rail, and his foot on the first step. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the dark figure standing in indecision in the darkness of the tunnel. He final stepped into the light, revealing himself as a nervous brown puppy. He stood shaking and gulped before delivering his message.

"If you tell anyone about this place," he threatened in a shaky voice, "We'll kill you!" With his message delivered, the puppy turned and fled down the tunnel. Shadow grinned in grim amusement.

"Where to now?" Tails asked when Shadow ascended the stairs. Looking up to the sky, he watched huge, fluffy clouds slowly floating by.

"I suppose we should find an inn to spend the night in," Shadow said.

They headed into the center of the town. The bustling market was still filled with buyers and sellers yelling deals, and children running around playing with their new toys. Shadow and Tails stay near the walls and squeezed past the people and booths. The movement of the crowds forced them apart many times, and Tails nearly jumped out of his skin when an old rabbit missing half of his teeth grabbed him. He waved a gold and red toy just under his nose, shirking about how a bright little boy like him would love this relic from the pre-war days. Shadow managed to convince the man they weren't buying and wrenched the frightened kit from his grasp.

"But surely-!" the old man tried.

"_NO_," Shadow said. They left the old man and he disappeared into the crowd.

Shadow and Tails avoided all other shady old men and women after that. Deciding they weren't going to spend the night anywhere that was right off the main street of the market place, they risked it and went off into the back roads. Unfortunately, the back roads where confusing, winding trails, crisscrossing and twisting in such a manner, that several roads managed to intersect themselves. The more narrow the road, the more likely it would be to return to the main street, and the wider roads lead to dead ends at the private estates of the rich. Not even a keen since of direction could save the two to them from becoming hopelessly lost.

But they got lucky. Daring to return to the market street, they explored the other half of the town. They discovered how this side was decently laid out and easy to understand. The cobble streets were spacious and clean. Lining the roads were buildings with _space_ between them, and apartments, shops, doctor's offices and mechanics weren't mixed in the same building. And a gracious five blocks from the marketplace was an inn. Tails kissed the building when they reached the front doors.

Inside, the inn was quaint and cleaned. There was a small lobby, with a dinning room behind glass double doors. The front desk stretched from one wall to another, and the wood was polished. Unlit lanterns adorn the walls but the air still smelled of the pleasant candles. The small inn had cheep rooms, but everything was keep neat and clean, giving it a homey feel.

They got the last vacant room the inn had. They took the keys to the fifth floor room gratefully and practically kicked open the door. Shadow went to look out the window while Tails went straight for the bathroom, which was right next to the front door. When Tails came out the bathroom and down the short hall, he was surprised to see a huge, circular bed covered with red satin sheets in the center of the room.

"Um, there's only one bed," Tails commented nervously.

"I've noticed," Shadow said dully. There was a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Why is it so…red?" Tails asked looking at the walls. They were painted red with broad, hot pink stripes. Tails felt what seemed like a remote under the sheets.

"They left us a little card on the table. This inn has a… peculiar name."

"What is it?" Tails asked. He must have hit a button on the remote, because the bed started to vibrate. Shadow grinned over his shoulder at the surprised kit.

"Welcome to Hotel Exotica."

-0-0-

Jake stood on the roof of the bell tower. He looked across the city under the violet sky of twilight. The market was finally quiet, closed for the night. The street seemed lonely, without people packed around the stands and squeezing past each other. The rat scanned the buildings and spotted Hotel Exotica, the inn his friends were reportedly staying in. The rat grinned when he imagined the look on their face when they walked into their room.

Jake looked down to the streets that ran around the huge bell tower. Several troops patrolled the streets, despite the fact that most crimes were committed during the hustle and bustle of the day. The guard rotated in a simple pattern that made it simple to avoid detection while prowling the streets. But the easiest way to avoid being seen was to simply travel by roof top.

Jake leaned forward and fell head first from the bell tower. He flipped and landed on the roof of the walkway below. He ran the length of the walkway and jumped, easily sailing over the street to land on the roof of another building. He moved with the quiet stealth of a thief, and leapt over the heads of clueless guards. He was almost ashamed at how easy it was to get past them. Almost.

Jake stood on the roof top of a building down the street from Hotel Exotica. He stood staring up into the fifth floor window of the Hotel. A pair of ruby eyes stared back through the dark room. They glanced at something in the room, before regarding the rat again. The red eyes disappeared, and Jake watched the front doors, expecting their owner to come walking out of the building.

"Hello, Jake."

Jake jumped. His foot slipped and he fell on his rump. He slid a few feet down the slanted roof. He stood, glaring daggers at the shingles. Jake climbing back up to the safety of the flat ridge at the peak of the slanted roof. Shadow stood on the ridge of the roof, grinning at the rat. Jake gapped at him wondering who Shadow got behind him so quickly.

"How did you…? Never mind. I need to talk to you," Jake said, shaking off his shock. He sat down on the ridge and looked up into the sky.

"I figured that much," Shadow said dryly. "Is it about your gang?"

"Yeah. I…I told them everything. Lillian is still uneasy, but I think Jet and Sledge understand why you did it, even if you did go a bit overboard."

"Do you think we went overboard?" Shadow asked. He watched Jake closely as he sat looking at his lap.

"I…I still don't know how I feel about it."

"Do you feel anything?"

"Maybe because he tried to hurt my sister-"

"But do you _feel_ anything?"

"Such a strange…feeling."

Jake suddenly whirled around to face Shadow. He was a lot closer than before, standing over Jake. His red eyes bore into Jake's soul, and Jake's brown eyes widened. A feeling that was unknown to him spread from his chest into every fiber of his being. Yet the feel was somehow very familiar to him at the same time. He remembered the strange feeling not too long ago, at the massacre of Bubba and his little band of thugs. Jake was both curious and fearful all at once.

"What…are you?" He asked, strangely out of breath.

"The same as you. So the real question is, what are _you_?" Shadow said quietly.

Jake mouth fell open slightly. He gapped up at Shadow again, before pulling himself together. He got to his feet and looked out over the town.

"You know what I am, don't you? Why don't you tell me."

"A god in the making."

"A god? How can I be a god?"

Shadow pulled a small blood red jewel out of nowhere, the likes of which he had never seen before. It hovered over the palm of the dark hedgehog's hand, spinning slowly and letting off a subtle red glow. Shadow held the red Chaos Emerald before Jake, and it began to spin a bit faster and glow a little brighter. A call echoed in his mind from the dark depths of the mysterious jewel. Jake's hand jerked up and he held his palm toward it. The jewel that he never before seen reacted and drifted from Shadow to Jake. It hovered to a stop in front of his palm still rotating slowly.

"What is it?" Jake asked, watching the jewel spin.

"It's a Chaos Emerald," Shadow said.

"Chaos Emerald? I think I've heard about these…"

"They are jewels if great power that reacts with one's heart and one's will. Few can control the power without being overcome by it," Shadow said. "And it recognizes you as one of its masters."

"A master of a great power. A god in the making. You tell some interesting stories," Jake said. He clutched the jewel in his hand to stop its spinning. The glow escaped between his fingers. "Can I assume Tails is the same?"

"Yes. So I ask you, will you accept or deny it?"

"How can you ask me that? I don't know anything about this. I can't make such a decision so soon."

"It has to be soon," Shadow said firmly. "The powers have been forced to shift over and over again. Too many have denied, or died, or left it in indecision and forced this fate on those who are less capable."

"What are you talking about?"

Shadow looked away from him. He stared down into the streets below instead, watching the guards walking their rounds. Jake looked out over the town as well, and shared his silence. Shadow was keeping something from him, but it seemed it was a personal matter. He wasn't going to press the matter.

Jake's hand felt empty. Looking into his palm, he was surprised to see the Chaos Emerald gone. Shadow had it in his hand again, and his was fingering it silently. Shadow's attention had shifted and he was starting intensely toward the north. He glanced at Jake then nodded toward the thing that caught his eye.

Jake stared over the city walls and spotted the light glowing at the horizon. At first, he thought it was a late traveling caravan that would come into town early the next morning. However, the caravan was far too large to be traveling from city to city, and it glowed too brightly in the distance.

"Wasn't most of our technology lost during the war?" Shadow asked quietly.

"Yeah. There have been rumors that military factions began to spring up in this area. It's said that they have resurrected mechanical and electrical technology."

"What are they doing so close to the city?"

"I guess they want to put Callor under its control. Because it's a merchant city, Callor could bring lots of money to any power the controls it," Jake said. He glanced up at the moonlit sky. "It's time for me to go back. It looks like there might be a commotion tomorrow. I suggest you skip town as soon as possible if you want to avoid trouble."

"Will you be coming with us?"

"Just give me a little more time, and we'll see," Jake said. He grinned at Shadow, before disappearing along the rooftops.

* * *

Jake: ...I'm a god..._SWEET_!

Trinity: Welcome to the ranks of the off-scene cast. You'll the turtored on the regular bases.

Jake: Oh cool-! Wait, what?

Trinity: YOU HEARD NOTHING! (runsoff)

Annabel: ...Is the psycho lady gonna be alright?

Jake: I don't think so...you should be more worried about your big brother, don't you think?

Annabel: (shrugs) Meh, you'll live.

Jake: ...SHADOW! You've corrupted my sister!

Shadow: Did not! (runs away)

Annabel: (Holding a sign that reads: **Gimme reviews so bruder doesn't die**) Like I care.

Tails: (eating from a bowl of turkey meat) I HEART BIRD!


	14. Chapter 14

Trinity: (gasps and claws out of the ground) The crap?

Annabel: Whaa!

Jake: Oh, she's still alive?

Shadow: Guess we jumped the gun.

Tails: Well, she didn't move for four monthes. Just sat motionless at the desk...

Trinity: So you _buried me_? You people _suck!_

Shadow: Just hope your fans return...

Trinity: (mummble) They better.

**I _still_ don't own Sega.** Even after seeing God, go figure...

* * *

**Chapter 14 –Military Might**

Tails yawned, and stared at the glowing red cover that was twisted around his body. He forced himself to keep his eyes open and stay awake and fought to untangle himself from the sheet. Tails finally managed to free himself, but he fell over the edge of the bed and the blindingly bright room was laid before him in all its red and hot pink-ness. Tails stuck his tongue out at the walls.

The twin-tailed kit clamored back up on to the mattress. He was only mildly surprised to find Shadow lying on the other side of the bed in a stupor. The black hedgehog was on his back with his hands folded behind his head and ankles crossed. His eyes were open and staring blankly at the ceiling. Tails crawled to him and stuck his face into Shadow's line of sight. The hedgehog blinked, his eyes came into focus and he stared up at the kit.

"Good morning, cupcake," Shadow said. Tails gagged.

"Bite me," he hissed, abandoning Shadow's side. Tails missed the smirk Shadow shot at him and yelped when he felt teeth pinching his shoulder. "I didn't mean it seriously!"

Shadow wrapped his arms around Tails in a tight embrace while Tails tried to fight him off furiously. Shadow only let the kit go when he finally stopped struggling. Tails huffed angrily, tilted his head back and stuck out his tongue at Shadow. The dark hedgehog merely chuckled at him.

"What's put you in such a good mood?" Tails asked sourly. He remembered clearly what happened the last time he gave Shadow sass.

"I can honestly say that I don't know," Shadow said. "I guess its just one of those days."

Outside, the huge bell tower bells gonged and a dull roar was heard in the streets below. Tails clamored off the huge bed and went over to the window. Below in the market place, the usual drone of voices rose in alarm and panic. Men in uniforms rushed about, ushering the crowd of people out of the main street. Within moments, the market place was emptied of the common folk, and replaced by the uniformed guards lining the roads.

"What's going on?" Shadow asked from across the room.

"I don't know, but there are guards lining the streets," Tails said. "Maybe someone important is coming to town?"

As if on cue, horns and trumpets blared, announcing the arrival of the troupe coming through the arched entryway. Soldiers in blue and white uniforms marched down the main street in rows of three, followed by a group of eight carrying a palanquin on their shoulders. Lounging in the palanquin behind red, silk curtains was a red and white fox dressed in what appeared to be war armor. Trailing behind the carriage was a line of prisoners chained together with more soldiers marching on either side of them.

From the hotel window, Tails and Shadow watched the group marched past the tall, silent buildings lining the main road. They already completely filled the marketplace, and yet they continued to flow into the city and into the wide street. They troops surround the palanquin, which was still being supported by the soldiers of the eight soldiers, facing outward and toward the silent buildings. Behind the silk curtains, the fox shifted and sat up on the couch and the curtains were moved aside.

The fox was very impressive looking. He was well groomed and handsome, almost completely an auburn red color with white on his hands and muzzle and running down his neck to his chest. He wore lavish clothing of royal purple silk under his light iron chest plate that lain across his broad chest. Thin lines of silver and platinum created a pattern of dragons on the armor, and matching dragons appeared on his robes in gold thread. From his shoulders hung a black cape lined with pure white fur.

Shadow saw him as yet another greedy pig.

The fox surveyed the city around him with hungry eyes. When his eyes landed on Hotel Exotica, Shadow pulled Tails away from the window immediately. The kit let himself be led away without a word, as if their voices might be carried down to the fox and draw his attention upon them. The fox's ornate and gaudy style sickened Tails as much as it disgusted Shadow. It was apparent that he had come to claim the city for himself in a quest to slake his lust for power.

Now that they were no longer distracted by the spectacle outside the windows, they could hear the commotion outside the door. Footsteps were rushing up and down the hallway just beyond the door. Tails went to check out this curiosity, but there was a soft knock on the door before he reached the handle. The kit shrugged, opened the door and was greeted by the double barrels of a pistol.

"Don't move. Don't say a word. Don't even breath."

Shadow watched frozen in his spot next to the bed as Tails walked backwards into the room with the gun of the white cat pressed into his forehead. Lillian, with her second pistol trained on Shadow, led Tails as far into the room as she dared. She stopped him a little ways from Shadow, then backed into the entryway and put what she considered a safe distance between herself and the boys. With both pistols aimed at the heads of her targets, she took a shaky breath and spoke.

"Who is that fox? What is your connection to him?"

"What?" Tails said, regaining his voice, "We don't know any-"

"LIES! That is the same man that wiped out Flora City last week!"

Tails gasped audibly. Lillian mistook his shock as proof that he knew something.

"That's right, your secrets out! We know you're connected to that barbarian!"

"Shadow the Hedgehog!" boomed a voice outside the window. "I've come to see you! Won't you come down and chat with me?"

Shadow looked at the window in surprise. The fox's voice gave him a bad feeling and a bit of anxiety crept up his spine. He felt like he was somehow being watched by the fox in the palanquin. Tails and Lillian were both shocked as well, and the pistols shook in Lillian's hands. _It's time to go_, Shadow thought to himself.

In a flash, Shadow was standing before Lillian. The white cat yowled in surprised, her finger squeezing the trigger. Shadow caught her wrist and the bullet was fired harmlessly into the ceiling. Shadow twisted her arm until her hand behind her shoulder then grabbed Tails by the head with his spare hand. The cat yowled in pain and Tails shouted in surprise, but Shadow ignored them both. Concentrating, Shadow's mind reached into the depths of his hidden emerald and he drew on its energy.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

Tails suddenly realized he had never been warped by the Chaos Control before. The empty bedroom and messy bed disappeared and was replaced by a negated space. To Tails, it was like he was in this negated space for an eternity, and yet he arrived at the secret base of the Desert Pirates instantaneously. Dazed by the conflicts of time and space, Tails' legs threatened to give way underneath him when it had all ended.

"Whoa," he managed to breathe out.

"Mmm, I have to get used to that again. I haven't use Chaos Control in years," Shadow admitted. Tails looked at him in alarm.

"And what would you have done if you messed up?"

"It's not like I every forget how to use it," Shadow said. "I just forget how it feels."

"Excuse me, but do you mind explain what just happened?"

Shadow looked up at the confused and alarmed faces room. He still held Lillian disabled, even though it was obvious that she was ready to hurl. Jet and Sledge were both on their feet, worried for they're comrade's safety. Shadow finally let the white cat go, and she fell to her knees, her pistols lying forgotten on the floor.

"It's one of Shadow's powers," Tails explained. "He can bend time and space to warp."

"And why is Shadow warping into our base?" Jet asked.

"That bastard fox knows him!" Lillian shrieked, suddenly gaining her voice again. She leapt to her feet and pointed an accusing finger at Shadow. "I told you they were in league with that devil!"

"Just because he knows Shadow, does mean Shadow knows him," Jake said calmly.

"Why are you protecting them?" Lillian snapped. "Why do you trust these two, when they are no more than strangers? When you know what happened at-?"

"Lillian!" Lillian stopped her sentence immediately. Jake sighed and spoke in a soft voice. "I don't know why I trust them. I just have this feeling that I can. And I never ignore my feelings."

As if this had settled the debate, the room fell deadly silent and Lillian's shoulders slouched in defeat. With nothing more to say, she turned toward Jet and sat on the floor next to him. Shadow and Tails were once again alone in the center of the room and under close inspection. The piercing silence wasn't broken until Tails spoke again.

"Jake, is it true? About what happened to Flora?" he asked in a meek voice.

"The rumor is," Jake said, his voice still calm and controlled, "he came across the survivors during his march toward Calor. The people greeted him happily, but there was a skirmish. I don't know what the fight was about, but it seems he destroyed what was left of the town just because he could. He ordered his men to kill most of the refugees, and the rest were put in chains."

"What about…" Tails' voice faded away and he looked away.

"Annabel is being held captive by that fox, as are most of the children," Jake said.

As the room sighed in relief, a brown puppy Shadow recognized as the one who had warned him not to give away the base's secret location scrambled into the room. He held open the thick wooden door for someone who was slowly shuffling in. An old weasel wrapped in a ragged cloth, came through the door and Shadow recognized him as well.

The old weasel was the same one who sat in the shady alleyway with a burnt out pipe and a hood over his head. Shadow thought he had been following people that passed with his eyes, but without the hood hiding his face, everyone could see that the weasel's eyes were milky white. He was as bony as can be, and his flesh was like fur covered leather. A few whips of grey hair poked out of his ears, and his eyes brows were covered in longer grey hairs.

He took his sweet time walking into the room. The brown puppy let the heavy door swing shut with a bang once he had shuffled out of the way. Nobody snapped at him to hurry up, and it was obvious he was important to the thieves. When he was far enough in the room, he stopped, raised his white eyes to Shadow, and pointed a long finger at him.

"You," he breathed in a soft, wheezing voice. "He has called for you several times. He has threatened to destroy us all, just to get his hands on you."

"What the hell are you talking about, you senile old man?" Sledge snapped. "Stop being so mysterious."

"Well fine," the weasel snapped back, his voice surprisingly strong all of the sudden. "That bastard of a fox is looking for you, Darky."

"He already knows that," Lillian said. "He was calling for Shadow before he decided to warp us here."

"Well, I bet you didn't know that he happily proclaimed that he'll tear this city to pieces to find him."

"What does he want with you?" Jet asked, eying Shadow carefully.

"He wants my power," Shadow said simply.

"Don't worry," Sledge said, "we'll protect you. We wouldn't let a disgusting pig like him get what he wants."

"Good, he's going to need all the protection he can get," the old weasel said. "That fox has a small army of G.U.N. mechs outside the city walls. He'll blow up the town if you don't come forward in ten minutes!"

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Trinity: There, happy?

Jake: MY SISTER!

Trinity: Meh, she'll be fine...

Jake: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SISTER?

Shadow: She'll be back. Don't worry.

Jake: _MY SISTER!_

Trinity: Buh-Bye!


	15. Chapter 15

Shadow: And we're back folks.

Tails: Where the hell do you get this stuff from?

Shadow: (shrugs) Too much T.V.?

Jake: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!

Shadow: Um, nothing? I think...

Trintity: Calm down, you'll get your sister back. (walks off)

**I still don't own any of this stuff.**

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Chapter 15: The Warlord

Shadow walked through the deserted roads of Calor, the sounds of his foot steps echoing off of the building walls. Faces peeked at the lone figure walking down the street through curtains and cracked shutters. The dark hedgehog walked blindly past the dark windows, buried deep in his own thoughts, letting his feet guide him through the confusing lanes. He was alone, for he had convinced the Desert Pirates to stay behind and let him met the fox in person. He was staring to wonder if that was a good idea.

Shadow lifted his head as he came around the corner and saw a group of soldiers crowed into the street. Every soldier wore the blue and white uniforms of the invading army and polished helms that reflected the bright morning light. Their caption, a bulldog that donned a red plume in his silver helm, spotted the dark hedgehog as he walked around the merchant's stalls and called his troops into attention. The soldiers quickly organized themselves into neat rows and waited silently as Shadow approached them.

"Shadow the Hedgehog!" the captain boomed. "Our leader has been waiting very patiently for the chance to meet you! We will escort you to our base where you will be privileged to speak to him in person!"

As the captain's booming voice faded, his troops moved to surround Shadow. They organized themselves so that he was incorporated into their rows and columns. Shadow eyed the two soldiers that took positions on either side of him and countless rows of five in front of and behind him. Every soldier was taller than Shadow, and with each of the troops standing shoulder to shoulder, he couldn't see past them. He felt like a child lost in a crowd of grown-ups.

Somewhere at the front of the unit, the captain gave the order and the company marched forward. They marched down the street, across the stone bride, and into the barren wilderness. Of his surroundings, Shadow could only see the tallest rock formations above the heads of the soldiers and the yellow gas that swirled around his ankles. Without an distinguishable land marks, he used his sense of direction and the rhythm of the march to keep track of where he was.

After twenty minutes marching, Shadow heard the unmistakable sounds of the camp over the beat of their boots on the dry, dusty ground. Shouts and laughter reached his ears and grew louder as the marched closer to the camp. Shadow looked up and saw soldiers keeping watch from atop the rock formations, leering down at him. The tops of tents appeared over the soldiers' heads, flying blue flags with double, diagonal white strips.

The row of soldier in front of Shadow parted suddenly and he stopped short. The rows behind him continued to part, and the soldiers encircled Shadow and the four soldiers beside him into a clearing. Other soldiers from the camp gathered around those that had escorted Shadow, whispering excitedly. Even the guards grew curious, standing up on the rocks to get a better look at what was going on.

In front of Shadow was a large and luxurious tent swaying slightly in the light breeze. A large blue with a white fox in between the diagonal bars of white fluttered in the wind,. Once silence fell over the entire compound, the soldiers that were still standing beside Shadow stepped forward and held open the flaps for him. Shadow hesitated for only a moment, before he entered the dimly lit tent. The moment his eyes adjusted to the lighting, Shadow struggled to swallow his disgust.

Stretched across a plushy couch, still wearing his armor, was the red and white fox. He lounged with his eyes closed in content, surrounded by young women and little girls. They were kneeling on the ground, or sitting on the armrests with despair darkening their countenance. They wore nothing more than strips of white cloth and chains that were attached to their wrists and ankles.

Among the women, rubbing the fox's feet, was Annabel. The little grey mouse stared blankly at the paws in front of her, tears streaming silently down her cheeks. A thin white cloth was wrapped around her chest, and another around her waist. Though her fur was sparkling clean, and she looked like she finally had a decent meal, she appeared to be the most miserable of the bunch. Like the other girls in the tent, she didn't even look up when Shadow entered.

"Do you see like what you see?"

The fox was watching Shadow through one lazy eye, munching on a grape that was just fed to him. Shadow's rage boiled over, but he kept it hidden behind a clam face. He tore his eyes away from the distraught mouse girl and stared at the fox instead. He didn't dare to open his mouth to respond however, afraid he would cause trouble if his anger spilt out instead. The fox grinned at him in a knowing manner.

"Then the rumors are true," he murmured.

The flap to the tent opened again, and light flooded in. Shadow glanced over his shoulder and saw a wolf and a hawk walk into the tent. The wolf had pure white fur and a scar that ran from cheekbone to the bottom of his jaw on either side of his face. The brown hawk had yellow eyes and a down-curved beak that gave him a stern expression. Both wore ornate uniforms similar to the soldiers, marking them as persons of high position.

"Who's this runt?" growled the wolf. Shadow once again resisted acting out on anger.

"This is our guest," the fox said smoothly. "I suggest you treat him with respect."

The wolf ran his yellow eyes up and down Shadow, measuring him up. It was obvious he disregarded Shadow as a threat, but he heeded the fox's command. Both the wolf and the hawk saluted Shadow before they walked past him and joined the women surrounding the fox. Shooing Annabel off his feet, he sat up and leaned forward, closely inspecting Shadow from head to toe. It was time to get down to business.

"Shadow, I don't think I've introduced myself yet. My name is Heath. To my left is Commander Fang, and this is General Kan," the fox said, gesturing to himself, the wolf, then the hawk in turn. "I suppose you are wondering why I have summoned you here, Shadow. You see, it is a dream of mine to forge a kingdom that will rule over this entire planet. It is for this reason I seek your power-a power similar to mine."

Shadow flinched at these words. He had a sneaking suspension, but he dared to hope it wasn't true. The fox called Heath sitting before him was another Chaos being he was searching for, though a weak one. Heath grinned at him as if he knew what was racing through Shadow's mind. Shadow ignored the infuriating smile and waited for Heath to continue his speech, desperate to find out just how much the fox knew.

"There is so little information on you, Shadow, but what I did find was magnificent. Old, corrupt computer files about a creature created on A.R.K. Designed so Chaos Energy runs freely through you, entwined into your very being, empowering you past the highest point of any measurement created. You were engineered to be the ultimate life form, and as the hedgehog that stands before me, the sole survivor of Project Shadow, you have lived up to that expectation-perhaps even surpassed it."

As Heath spoke, eyes all across the tent shifted towards Shadow. Fang and Kan were quickly shifting their opinions of Shadow, becoming nervous and tense as Heath described Shadow's potential strength. The girls stared at him in awe, entranced and intoxicated by the words Heath spoke as he wove his tale. Shadow couldn't help but notice Heath was rather enjoying the effect his story was having on the small crowd around him.

"However, your _purpose_ seems to be clouded. Several conflicting reports claim you to be the destroyer, meant to wipe this planet clean of filth. Another says you are a protector, meant to serve the people and bring them peace and happiness. Several, more personal reports claim you have lost your memories, or that the ones you have are all fake. With this I reach a sad, sad conclusion. You are a perfect being that has no purpose in life.

"So I offer you this one proposal: Join me. No matter what purpose you were given, or purpose you have given yourself, I can help you accomplish it. If you are a destroyer- come with me and wipe out our enemies. If the protector- help me forge a better world for the people. Even if all you want in life is to have a good time, come with me, and I can guarantee you'll have what ever it is you need.

"Besides, what is there to lose? You and I- we are the same after all. I might not be as fast or strong as you, but we are the same. Chaos Energy pulses through my veins just as it does through yours. We are brethren, and brothers must stick together. Side by side, we could sweep across the world, crush opposition, and bring this entire planet under our control!"

Heath was sitting on the edge of the couch now, excited by his own words, fist clench in the far off victory he spoke of. Shadow could hear the note of excitement quivering behind Heath's voice as his closed his speech. Sill, Shadow stood rooted to the spot in the middle of the tent, staring wordlessly at the fox. Several moments of still silence passed as the tense group before him waited for his answer. At last, Heath sat back into the couch, understanding Shadow wasn't going to break his sudden vow of silence.

"It's all right, you don't have to answer now," he said, cleverly masking his frustration. "Take some time and think about it-you can't just suddenly decide to become ruler of the world after all. Leave if you must, but I expect to hear from you soon."

Shadow turned to leave, but hesitated. He turned back and went back for Annabel, crushing the metal links of her chains easily. He picked up the startled mouse girl, cradled her in his arms, and left the tent forthwith. There was still a cluster of soldiers circled around the tent clearing, standing motionless. Shadow wondered if they had heard all that was said in the tent, but found his answer when they jumped back and parted as he walked toward them.

Annabel, her arms around Shadow's neck for support, stared ahead blankly as he carried her past the soldiers. Shadow could only image the suffering she's been through since they left Flora City a mere two weeks ago. He was determined to restore the child to her brother as soon as possible, the only form of comfort he could think of. As wordlessly as he was when he entered the camp, Shadow picked up his speed and broke into a run.

Shadow was skidding to a halt in front of the stone bride within ten minutes. He wasn't surprised to find the heavy main gates closed, only irritated. He couldn't-wouldn't-use Chaos Control with Annabel in his arms. Instead, Shadow sprinted across the narrow bridge and took a mighty running leap, sailing over the tall stone walls. Sentry posted on top of the wall were too stunned to sound the alarm, and gapped as the hedgehog landed in the middle of Main Street and strolled off.

Shadow entered the winding lanes off of the Main Street and headed for the Desert Pirates' base. The roads were still eerily empty, and his foot steps still echoed off the buildings and eyes peered at him from the shadows. Once or twice, Shadow caught a glimpse of the young thieves dodging into alleyways, and perhaps even the strange, old weasel. As he half expected, when Shadow reached the road with the secret ally to the base, he found Jake standing in the street.

"Annabel," he gasped. He made a move as to take her, but stopped. He glanced up and down the street nervously before leading the two away. "Let's not stay out in the open for long. We have much to discuss."

Shadow put Annabel onto her feet and she shuffled after her brother into the thin space between the buildings. Quickly, they descended the stairs into the underground passage below. Once in the dark tunnel, Jake wordlessly swept his sister into his arms and held her close. Shadow went on ahead, toward the large dome room, and Jake hurried after him, carrying Annabel. The heavy doors swung open for the trio and they quickly swung shut behind their heels.

Patient silence filled the room and all eyes turned to Shadow. The black hedgehog took a deep breath- and swung his fist into the wall. He put his foot on the wall and ripped his fist out of the hole he created and stumbled back a little. Shadow looked around at the stunned faces in the room then disappeared. Just as the room was recovering from the shock, Shadow reappeared with the two stuffed bags, tossing one at Tails.

"Hey, why did you get our packs?" Tails asked, watching Shadow go through the one in his hands. "_Hey!_ That's mine, Shadow!"

Shadow ignored him and pulled out the fox boy's red hoodie. Without a word, he snatched Annabel from Jakes arms and put her on her own two feet. He ripped off the skimpy white cloths that had served as clothes and yanked the hoodie over her head. The garment fit more like a dress than a shirt on the small girl, but it was apparently good enough for Shadow, for he began to rip the white cloths to shreds.

Crouching down to the pile, he thrust his palm at it and used a bit of his Chaos powers to set it aflame. He stayed squatted next to the small blazing and stared. The fire reflected oddly in his eyes, almost as if it was smoldering behind his eyes, not just reflecting his glossy gaze. When the pile of white cloth was reduced to an ashy smudge on the ground, Shadow took another deep breath and stood up.

"Shadow, what happened?" Tails asked meekly. "You-you didn't kill him, did you?"

"That's just the problem," Shadow said softly, "I can't kill him."

"What do you mean you can't kill him? You never had any trouble- oh no," Tails moaned. "No, it can't be. Not him! He _can't_ be one of us!"

"I'm not sure," Shadow said in the same soft voice. "He is weak, but he defiantly has the potential to become one."

"I don't care! A bastard like him doesn't deserve to have that kind of power! If he is weak, then he's worthless to us!"

"He's a Chaos being! For that reason, I can't kill him! Not until I find the other four and ensure he isn't part of our ranks!"

Shadow put his head into his hands, sighing. Tails stood staring at him in disbelief, unable to except that the rotten bastard was going to be allowed to live. Jake was beginning to understand why Shadow was so angry, but his lack of knowledge was become more and more obvious. He glanced down at his little sister who was hiding behind his legs. He needed to know more about what was happening in the world around him if he was going to protect her.

"Shadow, tell me about the fox," he said. For a minute, Jake worried Shadow wasn't going to answer him as the dark hedgehog stared at the ash in silence.

"Poison," Shadow whispered at last. "His voice, his words, his eyes- they're like poison. It's like he was something seeping into your soul and corrupting your mind. Even his troops own troops suffer from his poison."

"He has some sort of hold on them," Shadow said, answering the questions behind his audience's eyes. "They don't seem to notice, and it wasn't apparent to me at first. But every one of those soldiers seemed to bend under an unseen will. A will I am almost certain belongs to Heath."

"That's his name? Heath?" Tails asked. Shadow nodded and he immediately burned the name and the matching face into his mind.

"What are his goals? What did he want with you?" Sledge said.

"What every person wants when they grasp that kind of power- everything. He wants to take over this planet, and he needs-or rather wants my power to do it. The world is filled with weak-willed people that he can bend to do what ever it is he wants, so he really doesn't need me. I suspect, however, he has begun to fear opposition from beings who share a similar power to ours. If I can resist his powers, so too can the others like us."

"What is this 'power' you keep talking about?" Lillian snapped out.

"Powers like my Chaos Control, and evidently mind control. I call those who can use this power willingly Chaos Beings, because we draw our strength from the Chaos Emeralds. Not even I, a creature engineered to be a master of this power, know its limits." A grim smiled stretch across Shadow's face. "Though I'm pretty sure what _I_ strive for is really pushing the boundaries."

"Does he know about…_it_?" Tails asked.

"No. While telling him the prophecy would be the best way of knowing for sure, I wouldn't want to risk it."

"Me neither," Tails said. He started to bit his thumb, a sign he was thinking logically. "How much did he know about you?"

"He gave an entire speech on my origins and my past on the A.R.K. He didn't bring up Maria or the Professor, which I'm thankful for, because I would have ripped his head off. I have no clue what sort of trouble that might have caused so late in the game."

"There's a prophecy?" Jake said and Shadow nodded. "Tell it to me."

Shadow opened his mouth and let the power nestled within him flow in the form of words. To Jake, the prophecy was oddly poetic, despite it foretelling the end of everything. All around him though, the Desert Pirates stared in growing confusion. To their ears, Shadow was speaking in gibberish. The words jumbled together in their heads to from gobble-e-gook, and even Shadow's voice was warped into a low, rasping voice. Tails studied their clouded expressions carefully as he listened again to Shadow's tale.

"What the hell was that?" Sledge rumbled, slightly disoriented, once Shadow finished speaking.

"Something you obviously aren't meant to hear," Shadow said. "I'm wondering though, what effect did trying to listen have on you?"

"You reduced my brain to static-charged fuzz," he mumbled darkly. "What was the prophecy about?"

"The end of the world as we know it," Jake whispered.

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Shadow: Heh. Heh he he. Gobble-e-gook. What a fun word...

Trinity: You have issues.

Tails: And they all have their roots in you, oh great Authoress.

Trinity: Why thank you!

Jake: (giving Annabel a tight hug) _Finally_! I have my sister back!

Annabel: (gasps) _You're chocking me!_

Trinity: Hold up the sign! I don't care if you suffacte, hold up the damn sign!

Annabel: (holds up the sign that reads: REVIEW PLZ) _gasp...help...me..._


	16. Chapter 16

Shadow: Another day, another review.

Trinity: You seem board.

Shadow: I am. The story's been moving pretty slow lately...do you have writers block, 'cause I see you're late to update.

Trinity: Yeah, I did for awhile. Don't worry though, I'm sure this chapter will leave you wide awake. Heh heh heh...

Tails: Well, that can't be a good sign.

**Nope, still don't own any part of Sega.** I'll get it someday...

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Chapter 16- Learn to Hate

Back in their room in Hotel Exotica, Tails sat on the edge of the circular bed, swinging his legs back and forth. Shadow sat in a large plushy chair that matched the color scheme of the room. Sitting in the chair across from him was Jake, holding his little sister Annabel in his lap. Annabel, still dressed in Tails red hoodie, rested her head against her brother's chest and listening to his heart beat. The group sat in uncomfortable silence, each immersed in their own thoughts.

When Jake let it slip that the prophecy foretold the end of the world in the base of the Desert Pirates, everybody in the room froze in shock. Shadow grabbed Jake and immediately dragged him away from the base. Tails took Annabel and they rushed after Shadow as he led them back to the seemingly abandoned hotel. Shadow simply ushered Jake into their room, took a sit in the plushy chair and hadn't moved since, his eyes clouded as his mind wandered.

Jake saw that it was foolish of him to mention the world ending to a group of children and had immediately regretted when he saw their looks of shock and fear. He realized now that the prophecy wasn't for their ears, that they would not have been able to handle what it had foretold. Jake himself was still struggling to understand its full meaning. The prophecy left too many holes to be filled, and not enough clues to do it.

Tails was thinking just the same thing. It was only the second time that he had heard Shadow say the prophecy, and it had brought up a lot of questions for him. He especially wanted to know why the others in the room could not understand what Shadow was saying. Tails staring at his feet as he swung them back and forth as he wrested with the new questions and worries that popped into his mind.

Without warning, Annabel jumped up on the bed and sat next to Tails. Startled, Tails stared at her before giving a weary smile and Annabel gave him a smile filled with sunshine and daisies. Jake remembered the last time he saw her broad smile and the joy it brought him. Tails' spirits were lifted a bit higher by her overpowering joy, and he was compelled to chuckle. Annabel giggled with him and the two burst out laughing together. Jake and Shadow stared at the two and couldn't help but chuckle lightly with them.

"Do you feel better now?" Annabel said once they calmed down.

"Yes! Thank you very much, Annabel!" Tails said.

"That's good," Annabel said, looking at her feet. "Mama always said that worrying does nothing but make you old. She said there was no reason to think about all bad things that might happen, and if there's something that you need to do, you should just do it."

"You're right, Annabel. I'm sorry we were so gloomy and worried you," Jake said. He stood up and picked his sister off the bed, giving her a big bear hug.

"Shadow, she just told us to stop worrying," Tails said when the hedgehog returned to staring blankly at the floor.

"I'm not worrying, I'm thinking," Shadow said. "I know what I must do, but I'm still desperately searching for an alternate. There has got to be a better choice."

"Shadow?" Tails said, looking over Shadow in concern.

"Ah, don't worry about it.," Shadow said, catching the look the fox boy gave him.

"What are you going to do? About Heath's proposal I mean," Jake said.

"What do you think I'm going to do?" Shadow said with a snort. "I'm going to flat out refuse him. I'm nobody's servant."

"I see," Jake said with a smirk. "Well, what are you going to do when he throws a little fit? You know he'll take his anger out the city and -."

A gentle knock on the door interrupted Jake. Tails immediately hopped off the bed and answered it with a cheery smile. He was roughly pushed aside and a group of hard-eyed mercenaries dressed in the uniform of the city's night guard marched in. Annabel squeaked and scurried behind her brother's leg. One of the mercenaries dragged a stunned Tails forward, holding a gun to his temple Jake scowled at the mercenaries. , but Shadow kept his cool demeanor, staring down the mercenary.

"I'm _really_ starting to dislike guns," Tails said, glaring at the lynx who had his arm hooked around the kit's neck. "I remember when civilians didn't have guns."

"Shut up!" shouted the lynx. He squeezed the arm around Tails' neck and sneered at Shadow as the kit struggled for breath. "Shadow the Hedgehog- there's a handsome reward out there to return you to your master!"

"My…master?" Shadow asked, delicately raising an eyebrow. "And who might this master of mine be?"

"Don't play dumb!" the lynx snapped. "If you don't want you and your little friend to leave this place as a bloody pulp, you'll come along quietly."

"He's not my 'little friend'," Shadow said softly. Shadow spoke with such a sincere voice and face, it was hard for Jake to tell if he was acting or not.

"You can't fool me! The two of you have been together since you've entered the city. You went sight-seeing with each other. You even checked into this hotel together. What other reason could you have for hanging around him?"

"Oh, I can think of a few," Shadow said as a little smirk spread across his lips. Jake stared at him in shock, struggling to keep his calm.

"Huh. I guess pets really do take after their masters," the lynx said, ignorant to the flash of anger behind Shadow's eyes at being called a pet. He once again tightened his arm around Tails' neck, grinning when the young fox continued his struggles. "Well, I guess we'll just hold your boy toy hostage until you cooperate with us."

"See if I care," Shadow said. "I'm through with him anyways. You can have him."

The mercenaries whooped with glee and pounced on the fox boy. Tails' wide, frightened eyes stared wildly at Shadow before disappearing behind the rush of bodies. Jake realized Shadow wasn't going to do a thing to help him, but when he made a move Shadow sent him a cold glare that rooted him to the spot. Behind the wall of bodies, Tails could do nothing more than plea pathetically for the mercenaries to stop as they grabbed at him fur and clothes.

"Shad up!" said a burly tabby cat, smacking him with the butt of a gun.

The tabby let out a yowl that was reduced to gurgles when Tails grabbed his neck and thrust his thumbs into his throat, burying his claws into his jugular. The lynx let go off the kit in surprise and another pair of bodies fell to the floor in an instant. One mercenary had his skull smashed in by the kit's fist and the other was left whimpering and wheezing on the floor with gashes across his chest and an arm ripped clear off his shoulder.

Spattered with blood, fear quickly replaced shock in the mercenaries and they made a mad rush for the door. Tails made to go after them, but changed his mind and turned his icy eyes on Shadow instead. Shadow matched his cold fury with a calm, almost empathetic look of his own. The kit leapt at him and Shadow made no move to defend himself as Tails knocked him over and pinned him on his back.

"_You…you bastard!"_ Tails roared in a voice quiet unlike his own, laced with an unspeakable power and rage. _"You-you were me friend, and you just stood there and tossed me to the dogs! You sold me out!"_

"And I thought you were strong," Shadow said in a surprisingly gentle voice, like an adult trying to comfort a distraught child. "But you've been living in Sonic's shadow for so long, you don't know how to fight for yourself, even after he's gone. I'm not Sonic, and you can't expect me to protect you all the time like he has. You have power now, kid, and it's time you learned to use it."

Tails eyes widened. Slowly, Shadow sat up and the stunned kit that had been preparing to kill him collapsed into his lap. Tails, his eyes slowly returning to their clear blue color, gaped at Shadow, transfixed by his words. Shadow had struck a cord in the kit, as his words had rung true in his mind, and he stared up into the dark hedgehog's eyes. Shadow sat silently, as if carefully choosing his next words before he spoke them.

"If hatred and anger is the key to unleashing your strength," Shadow said, his voice hardening, "then I will make myself that key. While I liked being your friend, I would rather be your enemy until you can call upon your power on your own."

Shadow stood suddenly and the stunned kit tumbled out of his lap. Without saying a word to neither Tails nor Jake, Shadow walked out of the hotel room, stepping over the dead bodies in the doorway. Jake watched Shadow go feeling like he left a bad taste in his mouth. Still sitting on the floor where he feel, Tails stared blankly at where Shadow was just standing. Tears welded up in his eyes and began streaming down his cheeks.

"Come on," Jake mumbled. When he pulled on Tails' arm, the kit refused to move. "Get up!"

Tails flinched and finally let Jake pull him to his feet. Jake picked up his frightened sister and led the kit out of the room. Silent tears continued to pour from his eyes and blurred his vision as they walked down the abandoned hallways and left the hotel. Tails paid no attention to the streets that Jake pulled him through. He was hanging his head and simply trudging behind him miserably.

There was only one thought the kit's mind as they walked through the empty streets: _Shadow left me._

-0-0-

Silence fell over the military camp set up outside the city of Calor. Walking out of the twilight and past the rows of tents was Shadow. He marched straight for the captain's tent in the middle of the camp and let himself in. It was dark and empty inside, so Shadow seated himself on the couch and waited for Heath's arrival. Sure enough, five minutes later the fox appeared, leading Fang and Kan.

Heath let his surprise show for a moment when he spotted Shadow slouching on his couch. A wide smile quickly cracked across his face and he threw his arms wide open, as if he was receiving an old friend. It was obvious that the moody hedgehog wasn't going to move, so Heath let his arms fall to his side but kept up his smile as he strode forward and sat next to him on the couch.

"When I said I expected your answer soon, I didn't expect to hear from you by the end of the day," Jake said, leaning against the arm of the chair. "Well, have you come to join me?"

"You sent bounty hunters after me," Shadow said, his eyes flashing at him in the gloom of the tent. Heath's smile faltered, but he immediately picked it up again.

"Well, I did hint that I would do anything to get you to join me," Heath said carefully, "but I most defiantly wouldn't send _bounty hunters_ after you. I wanted you to come-."

"I will not work for you," Shadow said. Heath's smile dropped off his face and his eyes hardened. Fang and Kan laid their hands on their swords. Shadow ignored the tension sparked in the dark tent and continued. "I serve no one and I will make no exception for you. If you get in my way again, I will kill you."

"Now, Shadow," Heath said gently, as if he was explaining something to a child. "No one said anything about you serving me. I want to work _with _you- work as your partner."

"No. I work alone," Shadow said, getting to his feet. "If I want to take over the world, I will do it with my own two hands, and I will crush anyone who opposes me."

Shadow turned and left Heath to seethe in the dark tent, strolling past the wolf and hawk standing next to the tent flap. The two watched him walk past, gripping the hilt of their swords as if they expected him to surprise attack them. But Shadow left the camp as quickly as he had entered it. The soldiers half dressed in uniform and the guards standing along the rock formations watched him he headed back to town in nervous silence.

Shadow, however, never made it back to town. He instead took a detour and went deeper into the barren wasteland. As the last of the sun's rays faded, the temperature dropped significantly. Dark clouds gathered on the horizon and shielded the moon from lighting the land. Shadow, remembering the dangers of the yellow gas he knew was swirling around his ankles, Shadow sought out a high cliff to rest on.

In the darkness, he found an opening to a small cave a few feet above the ground. As Shadow climbed into it, he was reminded of the first night he spent in the empty wasteland with Tails. The fox boy was so cold, he cuddled up against Shadow, despite being wrapped up in fur and blankets. Shadow couldn't help but grinning when the kit peaked at him, as if asking if it was okay to cuddle.

_(If you liked him so much, why did you leave him?)_

Shadow frowned at the thought that popped into his head. _Because he must learn to stand on his own, like all growing children must._

_(He's been alone for so long already, forced to abandon everything during that terrible war. Wasn't that enough for one little boy to go through?)_

_At first, it was. It was what awakened his powers,_ Shadow said. He leaned back against the rocky wall of the cave and peered into the inky black sky, searching for stars. _But now, he must learn to stand with the weight of his power on his shoulders. He has so much potential, but he's afraid of it and refuses to develop it. If I become his enemy, then he will have to become much stronger._

_(Why does it even matter? Isn't it enough that you're there for him, like friends are suppose to be?)_

_That's the problem. I cannot always be by his side, holding his hand. There are those weaker than him with more control over their power than he has- this Heath character is one of them. I fear that I won't be able to be there for him, that I will let him down and I will lose him like I have lost so many others._

The clouds broke and tiny pinpricks of light flickered in the night sky. Shadow stared at the twinkling stars until the clouds came together again and hid them from view. But Shadow's mind stayed high above the planet and travel someplace far away, to the Space Colony A.R.K. _I couldn't stand it if I lost anyone else because I failed to protect them._

-0-0-

Tails was lying in an old cot in a dark, damp room. Annabel was sound asleep next to him, wrapped up in old, torn sheets. Jake had led Tails and Annabel out of the hotel safely, and paid a visit to the old, eccentric weasel. Jake begged and pleaded, but it wasn't until a few pretty pennies exchanged hands, that the weasel agreed to watch over Annabel and Tails. Jake left shortly after Annabel was settled in bed and Jake had the weasel's word that he wouldn't speak of them.

Now it was late into the night, and clouds blotched out the skies above the quiet city. The old weasel sat outside on the porch, rocking back and forth in his creaky, old chair. Tails stared blankly out the dark window, waiting for the rains to come. His tears had stopped a long while ago, but his mind was still slow to take up the events of the past hours.

_Shadow left me…why? He said I needed to get stronger, to learn how to call upon my power…_

_(Yes, to fight and kill on your own,) _whispered a voice in the back of his mind. Tails shuddered, remembering the last time he heard the voice.

_He didn't say anything about killing!_

_(But he implied it. You must be able to defend yourself from those with more power than yourself, and that means killing them.)_

_No! Shadow said that I had to learn how to use my power. I remember he mentioned that Heath used a sort of mind control and Shadow knows loads of Chaos moves. What do I have? Nothing. An evil son of a bitch like that bastard fox, who is supposedly weaker than me, could probably beat me senseless, then make me his mindless slave!_

_(If Shadow only wanted you to become stronger, couldn't he have just stayed and trained you? No, he left you and broke what little spirit you had left in you. He wants you to become empty and cold, to learn to fight and kill without mercy!)_

"Maybe," Tails whispered out loud, "Or maybe he just doesn't need me anymore."

* * *

Tails: ...WHAT. THE. CRAP?

Shadow: Wow... Heh, I'm so mean.

Tails: YOU LEFT ME, YOU DAMN PRICK!

Shadow: Hey, 'damn' is my word...

Tails: AND THE BAD VOICE IN MY HEAD IS BACK! DAMN IT! DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!

Jake: Don't you think you're over-reacting a bit?

Tails: MACALAKA!

Shadow: Maca...laka? What?

Annabel: He's lost it. (Turns to Trinity )What do you have to say for yourself young lady?

Trinity: (puffs up her chest) I'm very proud of it, if I do say so myself!

Annabel: (sigh) Fine, just cut to the Reveiw Pleading.

Tails: GIVE ME REVIEWS! I MUST GET SHADOW BAAAAAAAACK!


	17. Chapter 17

Shadow: Damn it...All my fans hate me now...This is all your fault, Trinity! You made me the bad guy! _AND_ you're updating late...AGAIN!

Trinity: (sticks out tongue) Well excuse me for having a life! And I don't care what everyone else thinks, Shadow still rocks!

Shadow: Damn straight!

Trinity: I just like screwing with his fan base...

Shadow: (O.o) ...Why?

Trinity: (smirk) I get more reviews that way. And speaking of reviews, we reached and passed 100 glorious reviews last chapter! I thank you all from the top of my heart!

Tails: Top? Shouldn't it be...?

Trinity: Of course, if I had it my way, we'd be at two hundred by now...

Annabel: Of course. (--')

**I still don't own these awsome Sega characters...**

* * *

**Chapter 17 - Resolution**

It was an hour before midnight when the storm finally arrived. Winds blew sheets of rain sideways, and sometimes straight up. Later in the night, the dropping temperatures turned the rain drops into snow flurries that swirled up and down the streets in small, white twisters. Tails lay awake through it all, staring out of the tiny window until frost and lumps of mushy snow made it impossible to see through the glass.

It wasn't until the early hours of morning that the storm finally subsided. As the rain returned and slowed to a light drizzle, Jake emerged from the murky night. A creaking door announced his arrival as he entered the small bedroom. The rat sat on the edge of the cot and watched his sleeping sister Annabel, looking tired and grim. Tails rolled to his side and met Jake's eyes, and the rat smiled at him.

"Did you go see them? You're friends I mean," Tail whispered in the cracked voice of someone who just woke up.

"Yes. I told them about Shadow's…recent actions," Jake said. "Lillian is upset over you, despite being in an 'I told you so' mode. She's demanded that you go see her later."

"Why?"

"She's taken quiet a shine to you, kid," Jake said with a grin. "And she's at that 'mother figure' stage. I guess she just wants to comfort you in your time of loss."

"I…I won't go," Tails said after a moment of silence.

"Tails?"

"I-I don't need to be comforted," Tails said, sitting up on the cot. "I haven't lost him yet."

"Tails, that man left you. You can't just sit here and hang on to him, hoping he'll just come back. Forget about him and move on."

"You make it sound like some sappy relationship gone wrong," Tails said with a dark chuckle. "It's just…I don't think he's really abandoned me. He just left so I would see something I missed before…He's still my friend. I know he is."

_At least I hope he is,_ spoke the tiny voice of doubt. Tails brushed it aside. He rearranged his features into a determined look and stared at Jake. The intense look in his eyes disregarded the doubt still lingering in Jake's mind. It was obvious Tails was going to believe whole-heartedly in his words and charge forward without looking back- almost like a certain blue hedgehog. _Is this what you wanted? _Tails thought with an inward grin. _And here I was, thinking you hated Sonic's attitude._

"What about Heath? Has he made his move yet?" Tails said.

"I don't think so. He wouldn't dare make his troops march through that storm last night, and it's too wet and soggy out to go now."

"Wouldn't he prefer to attack under the cover of night?"

"These days, fighting in the night is hazardous. Not only is it too dark to discern friend from foe, but the low temperatures numb soldiers and make it difficult for them to fight. If he's going to attack today, it would be during late evening, after the sun's dried up the ground, and let the fight continue into the night."

Tails stared biting his thumb, staring at the frost covered windows. He remembered the old weasel saying Heath threatened the city with G.U.N. mechs, but Shadow never mentioned seeing them. Could the fox have been lying, bluffing to get Shadow to appear? If he had, then the city might have a chance against him. Tails sat up and drew lines on the frosted window.

"This is what we're going to do. We have limited time, so we'll have to move quickly. Until we can confirm that Heath has no battle mechs, we will fight from the interior of the city here," Tails said, pointing to his drawing. "If he has none, we can work on defending the walls and picking off soldiers from above. With only one bridge to the plateau, it shouldn't be too hard to do."

"Ah. There is another way into the city," Jake said, as if he was just remembering. "There's a secret tunnel that leads out of our base. You turn right instead of left once you go down the stairs, and the tunnel leads into a cluster of intertwined caves north of the city."

"Does anybody know about it?" Tails said, alarmed.

"Only a few privileged members of the Desert Pirates know for sure, and the others have guessed the tunnel leads out of town. But the caves are hidden underground, and finding the right passage is nearly impossible, so the tunnel is normally used as an escape route. We wouldn't risk trying to sneak into the city that way. We'd get lost."

"Good," Tails said, biting on his thumb again. "Then the first thing we need to do is to confirm the presences of battle mechs. Our defense strategy depends entirely on whether or not Heath has any."

Annabel stirred under the sheets and poked her head out of the cloth cocoon. She squinted, unable to see with the dim light that filtered through the filthy windows and looked around the unfamiliar room. When she spotted her brother, Annabel crawled into Jake's lap and went back to sleep, sticking her thumb into her mouth. Jake wrapped his arms around the little girl, and a desire to protect her sparked within his chest.

"We have to protect this city," Jake said softly, cradling his sister lovingly. "At all cost."

-0-0-

There was a little black ball of fur known as Shadow the Hedgehog huddled in the back of a small cave some twenty miles from Calor, wrapped up in a traveling cloak. Winds had blown rain and snow into the cave during the night, and ice coated his body. When the first rays of sunlight fell on him and warmed his ridged body, Shadow uncurled and crawled to the cave opening where he collapsed and laid still, soaking up heat from the sunlight like a reptile.

Shadow happily welcomed the first rays of morning and the coming heat wave. He let his body repair the damaged that was inflicted by the cold storm during the night. Slowly, his strength returned to him and Shadow managed to sit upright. An hour later, he could climb out of the cave and pull himself on top of the bluff, where he sat and surveyed land. The yellow gas had cleared during the storm and the dusty red earth was moisten into sticky mud. Until it dried, it would be extremely difficult to travel across the land.

The temperature rose sharply once the sun cleared the horizon. Shadow calculated four hours until the ground was hard enough to walk on again and settled into his mediation to wait it out. The sun bathed him in its warm rays, and Shadow's body rejoiced in the heat until his black fur became too warm and his body temperature spiked. Shadow resisted to impulse to seek shelter from the relentless heat, and for five hours, he sat underneath the sun and forced his body to suffer with calm dignity.

The soft footsteps of someone trying to sneak up behind him reached Shadow's overly sensitive ears. Shadow was immediately on guard, but didn't let a single muscle in his body twitch and waited as the sneaky culprit hiked up the bluff. Even when the person was standing behind him, Shadow made no sign that he knew of his presence. Shadow waited patiently for the red and white fox standing behind his to speak.

"I will launch my attack on Calor in three hours," Heath said, pausing. The winds blew, but Shadow didn't move so he continued. "This is your last chance to join me, Shadow."

Shadow barked his laughter into the air and the winds carrying his voice down the bluff and out into the land. His laughter echoed through the small caves and ricocheted off of the huge rocks, as if laughing with him in response. The land rang with his laughter for only a moment, but it was enough to infuriate the fox. In an instant, Shadow was on his feet and in Heath's face, a wide grin on his face. Heath stumbled back in alarm.

"Or what, you'll destroy me?" Shadow shouted.

"Yes! I will take rule of the entire world and you are a threat to my plans- you are in the way!" Heath shouted back. Shadow laughed again. "I wanted to have the strongest being in the world at my side, Shadow, but I will destroy anyone who opposes my rule!"

"If I am the strongest in the world, how do you plan on defeating me?"

"Even with strength like yours, you can be subdued by overwhelming forces."

"So you come here alone, and threaten me?"

"Who said I was alone?" Heath hissed.

From the intertwined caves and around the boulders that echoes Shadow's laughter came hundreds of thousands of troops carrying rifles or pistols in their hands. The white and blue clad soldiers glared silently at Shadow and tensed when the black hedgehog's eyes glanced in their direction as Shadow sized them up. Heath stared at Shadow, search for some sign of concern in his face, but he only stared back with his usual cold and emotionless expression. Heath scowled angrily at him.

"You will join me, Shadow," Heath said softly, his voice ringing in Shadow's head. He turned sharply on his heel and hopped off the bluff, signaling his troops to retreat.

Shadow watched the masses of troops leave with a look of indifference, but inwardly, he was shaken. The way Heath's voice had echoed in Shadow's brain as the fox was leaving was disquieting, at best. On top of that, Shadow was worried to find so many troops had managed to surround him without his notice. Shadow wondered if he had somehow been under Heath's mind control powers and suppressed his shiver of fear, careful not to show his weakness before the last of the troops that were slipping away through the caves.

_I will not submit to his will,_ Shadow thought venomously, sitting down and staring across the land toward the horizon. _And I will not let him have his way._

-0-0-

It was a hot and sunny noon in the city of Calor, and the market place was bustling with life. But unlike a normal sunny day, the people of Calor were busy clearing out to market place. The flimsy wooden stalls were taken apart and rebuilt to make blockades and extra ladders. The more permanent ones were converted into easy-access storage units for food, water, and medical supplies. Houses being were emptied of anything that could be used as a weapon and piled into the middle of the street.

Young thieves and city guards worked together to coordinate the effort to prepare for the oncoming battle. From the underground base of the Desert Pirates, which even now remained a guarded secret throughout the commotion, came all the commands for the operation. Jake, Sledge, Jet, Lillian, and Tails stood crowded around a circular table, various maps that were scribbled on laid out before them. The thieves ran in and out, carrying messages for the five that were secretly in control of everything.

"Sirs, ma'am," said a bat child with unusual formality, "the set up of the city hall as the emergency over-flow hospital is now complete."

"The assignment of back-up nurses and doctors is also complete," said the bat's sister.

"Good," Jake said, glancing over to Tails. "Now all that's left…"

"Right," Tails said with a nod. "Now that our other projects are finishing up, we should have a good handful of people who can go."

"Jet," Jake said, turning to the lizard. "I need you to hand pick four others to take with you."

"And just where am I going?"

"I need you to sneak into Heath's base, and see if he really has any G.U.N. battle mechs or if he was just bluffing."

"WHAT?" Jet screamed, his yellow eyes popping out of his head.

"Hmm, I see where this is going," Sledge said, crossing his arms across his huge chest. "If he was bluffing, then this may be easier than we thought. And if he wasn't…well, we need to know what we're up against."

"Yes, knowing what we're going to be up against will help us come up with the best defense strategy," Lillian said, glancing over a report that was just handed to her. She peered over the top of the paper at Tails and Jake. "I assume that is why you've been holding off on assigning guard posts and such?"

"But why do I have to go?" Jet muttered, already breaking out into a nervous sweat.

"Because you are the stealthiest of our group, and because I have other jobs for Lillian and Sledge," Jake said. "Speaking of, Sledge you know the strengths of our current members best, correct?"

"Yeah, I suppose I do. Why?"

"Pick our strongest and fastest to stand guard in the tunnel. We need them to be able to single-handedly fight off any one who might come down it, or run like hell to tell us about the breach should they fail to protect it."

"You don't think-?"

"That is exactly what I think," Jake said, following a small kitten with his eyes as she scurried out the room. He waited a few moments to make sure no one else was coming before saying in a low voice, "They must be people we can trust, Sledge. This is our best guarded secret, but we can't afford to hide down here when the battle starts and leave all the fighting to these children, even though their all so eager to fight."

"What about me?" Lillian said.

"I need you to go top side and rally the people into fighting with the guards. I know everyone is working together in preparation for the battle, but I doubt even half of them are planning on helping once things start to get dangerous. Without more people fighting alongside the guards, Heath's troops will far out number us and we will be crushed."

"What about you, Leader? What are you going to be doing" Jet said.

"Erm, I'm staying here, with Tails. We have things to…discuss."

Tails frowned Jake, feeling slightly annoyed, but Lillian glanced at Tails sympathetically, thinking about his situation with Shadow. While she and the kit hadn't gotten off on the right foot, she still felt like she should be trying to comfort him. After all, his hard work and determination could just be a ruse to cover up his true feelings. But without another word, Lillian, Jet and Sledge, saluted Jake and left, closing the huge double doors behind them, leaving Jake and Tails in the empty, silent room.

"If this is about Shadow-," Tails began.

"It's not," Jake interrupted quickly. "It's, um, about making you stronger."

"Huh?"

"I…I know a few Chaos techniques that I can teach you," Jake said, nervously scratching his cheek. "If, um, you want me to that is."

"You even know a few?" Tails said, his jaw dropping. "Am I the only incompetent one? God, no wonder he left me!"

"Well, I didn't know what these powers were, until Shadow told me, and I don't use them very often. I just thought, you know, they would be useful for the up coming battle."

"Yeah," Tails said. He shook his head. "I mean, thank you. I would love for you to show me a few moves."

"Um, okay."

Jake was suddenly feeling very shy. He rarely used his powers before, and he hadn't been practicing at all during the past year. None the less, he stuck out his hand, palm facing up ward, and his fingers curled as if he was holding a ball. And sure enough, as Tails leaned in closer, a ball orange of Chaos Energy began to form. Tails' eyes lit up as the glowing ball swirled in Jake's hands.

"Now watch," Jake said.

Walking over to where Shadow had left a hole in the wall with his fist, Jake pressed the swirling ball of Chaos Energy against the opening. The stone made a strange hissing sound as it was cut away, the Chaos Energy vaporizing it in an instant. Jake pushed his hand into the wall until his arm was buried to the shoulder in it. The strange hissing sound died and Jake pulled his hand out of the hole. Tails immediately looking into the hole and saw how perfectly the stone had been cut.

"Wow," Tails sighed in awe. "Can it go through anything?"

"Anything I've tried so far," Jake said with a shrug.

"What's it called?"

"Called? Um, I didn't really name it or anything…"

"How do you do it?" Tails said, determined to learn.

"It sort of happens naturally. But you have to try and pull all of the Chaos Energy in your body, and gather it into the palm of your hand," Jake said, holding out his hand again. With a faint hum, the orange ball of energy appeared in his hands, slightly more erratic than before. "Curve your fingers to contain it and use Chaos Energy flowing from your finger tips to spin it, so it keeps its shape and you have better control."

"Can you throw it?" Tails asked innocently. Jake gulped.

"I can, but I can't control its path very well. Once it leaves my hand, it sorta goes on its own for a few seconds before it disappears," Jake said. His face turned solemn and sad. "The last time I tried, I took destroyed three different buildings, killing almost a hundred and injuring many more."

"Oh," Tails said, hanging his head. "Sorry I brought it up."

"It's alright. I've been practicing since, but without any luck. I just can't control its path, and it sorta zigzags in the general direction I want it to go."

"You should keep practicing, even if it does zigzag," Tails said thoughtfully. "That could really come in handy for the battle today."

"You think so?" Jake said, staring at his hands. "Well, okay."

Jake once again formed the ball of Chaos Energy in his palm, making it smaller than it was before. He stared nervously at it before he shrugged and half-heartedly tossed it at the wall. The swirling ball of energy started off straight enough, but it jerked to the side and shot off at a 45 degree angle. Half a second later, it jerked again and changed its course- this time heading straight for Tails. It hit him squarely in the chest, and the kit was sent flying backwards, smashing his small body into the wall.

"TAILS!" Jake screamed, rushing to his side. Jake dropped to his knees next to the kit, and was stunned to see him sit up so suddenly. His chest was smoking where the ball of energy had hit him, but there was no apparent injury. "What's going on? That should have ripped right through your flesh…"

"Gee, thanks. I'm glad it didn't kill me either," Tails said, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Erm, sorry. I just thought you'd be dead for sure…" Jake said looking closely at Tails. _It didn't hurt him at all,_ he thought to himself._ There isn't even any blood._

"I know that we Chaos beings have a little resistance to Chaos energy, but this is just ridiculous," Tails muttered, his hand going to his smoking chest. He inspected his white fur closely, but found no marks or even a singed hair. "It's almost as if…"

"What? As if what?" Jake said, feeling nervous again.

"As if I absorbed your energy," Tails said. Jake stared at him. "It's like I had attracted the pure energy you threw, and when it touched me, I absorbed it into my body and made it my own. Well, I actually feel pumped right now."

"Well, why don't you try and make the ball now?"

"Yeah!" Tails said, jumping to his feet. "I will now make 'The Ball'"

"Don't start calling it that," Jake groaned and Tails giggled at him.

Tails took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He thrust his hand out in front of him and started concentrating. He could feel the Chaos Energy welling up inside of him, could feel it rush to the surface of his flesh. However, Tails could not force his energy to gather into the palm of his hand. All he could get was something like static- little bolts of blue-white energy would skip out of his palm, rushing up his arm and across his body.

Jake watched as Tails stood perfectly still, struggling to center his energy on one point in his hand. As the minutes slipped by, the air around him was filled with a soft humming and the blue-white energy from his palm, began to skip across his fur of its own accord. Soon, even the air started to crackle with the energy. Ten minutes of concentrating later, the ground underneath Tails' feet cracked without warning, making Jake jump slightly.

"I can't do it," Tails said with a sigh, his body going limp. "I just can't center my energy on a specific point. It just keeps rushing around in my body."

"Well, you were sending out sparks from your palm," Jake said. "I think that's a good start. You just need to concentrate a bit more."

"No. You said it came you to naturally, right?" Tails said, biting his thumb. "Well, I was just forcing it. That move just isn't for me. Don't you have any others?"

"Well, yes. But if you can't focus your power…"

Jake frowned and crossed his arms across his chest. Tails was just starting to wonder what he was thinking when an orb of light began to form in front of Jake. Energy spiraled into the tiny orb until it was the size of Jake's fist. Tails blinked and saw another orb forming just above Jake's left ear, and another caught his eye, forming right beside him. Soon, the air was filled with small, yellow orbs, like several suns lighting up the room.

"Well, what do you think?" Jake said.

"I won't be able to pull that off," Tails said, childish glee spreading across his face. "But is sure looks awesome! What do they do?"

"Explode," Jake said. Tails went ridged. "On my command of course. Though a few have blown up on contact…"

"Can you throw these?"

"Kind of. I can guide them but they don't go very fast," Jake said with a frown.

"Hit me with one."

"WHAT?"

"Hit me with one," Tails said casually. "I want to know if I can absorb these too."

Jake swallowed nervously. Using his finger as a directing tool, he pointed at one of the tiny suns and flicked his finger at Tails. The yellow orb seemed to vibrate, then drifted forward, quickly gathering speed. It tapped Tails in the chest and expanded, as if it was going to explode, but it suddenly shrunk again, siphoning into Tails' body at the point of contact. Once the entire orb had been absorbed, Tails touched his chest lightly.

"Maybe that's my power," Tails muttered.

"It can't be your only one," Jake said. The yellow orbs disappeared from the air in little poofs when he waved his hand at them. "You're much stronger than me, I'm sure. You just need to…"

"Discover it on my own," Tails said, looking down at the crack in the ground he had made earlier. "That's why it wasn't good enough for Shadow to just stay and teach me. Using my own Chaos energy isn't something that can be taught. This is something I have to do on my own- there is no other way."

Jake looked at Tails solemnly as he realized that Tails had just rationalized the reason for Shadow's departure. But before he could say anything, there was a soft knock from the opposite side of the doors. Someone was asking for permission to enter the room, so Jake went to open one of the heavy doors. A messenger whispered urgently to the rat then scurried away. When Jake looked over his shoulder at the kit, Tails was still staring down at the crack in the ground, biting the side of his thumb.

"Tails?" Jake said. The kit's head snapped up. "Jet's ready to go. We're sending him down the tunnel, so we're going to wait awhile for the guards that Sledge has chosen to show up."

"Go," Tails said simply. "It's your duty to see them off."

"But what about you?"

"I'll stay here and practice a bit more. It's not like I have anything else to do."

"You can always go to the market place and help with the preparations," Jake said. Tails frowned at him. "Look, just don't wear yourself out. It wouldn't do us any good if you're too exhausted to use your powers, okay?"

"Right," Tails said. Jake smiled at him and disappeared, the door swinging shut with a low thud behind him. Tails stood staring at the door for a while before he glanced down at the cracked ground again. "But it also wouldn't help us if I can't do anything at all."

* * *

Shadow: (sniff) Tails still trust me... 

Jake: You don't deserve his trust you son of a-!

Trinity: _JAKE!_

Jake: What? He doesn't!

Tails: There, there Jake. You know you still trust him too.

Jake: Hmph...

Trinity: This is actually one of my longest chapters, so it makes up for being a few days late, right?...RIGHT?

Annabel: Sure, why not...(Holds up the usual **REVEIW PLZ** sign) Let's see the readers like it.

Trinity: YOU SHOULD ADORE ME FOR THIS!


End file.
